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The poster represents much of what I find special about the Fair. We love to see the animals, and that is our #1 priority when we visit. Horse shows, the fish in the conservation building, cows, sheep, pigs. Our favorite is the rabbit & poultry barn. Modeled on a photo I took a few years ago, this fella keeps an eye on me, while in a cage behind him, a bunny peeks out to see what's up, doc?

 

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 The Erie County Fair slogan is "The Best 12 Days of Summer. Opening day has changed over the years, but the anticipation is still great. When I was a kid, it was preceded by the arrival of the James E. Strates shows train, and by a grand parade full of floats built by every community in the County. For myriad reasons, the opening has become more compact, with a grand opening at the main gate, and a canned food drive. When people say "This ain't the fair I remember!" My answer is "That's because it's alive. The only things that don't change are in museums." The fair that adults remember today were pale imposters to our great grandparents. Kids going to the Fair in 2023 will relish the memories, and scoff at the 227th. That's how history works.

To honor Opening Day, I have the Main Gate wrought Iron sign, with balloons st aloft. This was the square I fretted over from the moment I drew it. The lettering and thin lines were a fright to carve. But it all printed beautifully.

Making History

In February of this year, the Erie County Fair put out a call for artists to submit designs for the 183rd Erie County Fair. I'd missed the email, and a friend who is also an artist and Fair fan told me about it and suggested that I enter. I'm not a poster maker, but I had an idea, and thought I might enter, just for fun.

The call was to submit a sketch of the proposal, photos of past work, an an artist's statement. At the eleventh hour, I found my original idea unworkable, and a little dull. A day before deadline, I basically gave up. I went for a walk to clear my head and to berate myself for not being much of an idea guy.

In the middle of that walk, I had a vision: tell the story of how I view "The Best 12 Days of Summer." Graphically, colorfully, in a very woodcut way.

I drew and inked my cartoon and got my application in just before deadline. I loved my concept, but I knew it didn't have the slick look and clean lines of modern computer-aided posters, and so I just prided myself on getting into the mix.

A few days later, while I was expecting a "thank you for entering, however...," I was pretty surprised to be informed that I was in the top 3. WOW!

The next step was to interview with the Commemorative Poster Committee. A wonderful group asked me questions about my own history as a Fairgoer, and were genuinely interested in my medium. They graciously let me ramble on for half an hour. As I walked home, I was full of pride for achieving that, and expecting to win the third place slot. 

A couple days later, walking downtown to my bus on a sunny afternoon, I received the call. 

They loved the design. They loved my passion for the fair. They were intrigued by the process.

I would be creating the poster for the 2023 Erie County Fair.

 

Summer Uncovered

We're almost there kids. I'm so pleased by how it's turned out. While it's not my most complex print, the cutting was insane. I'd been worried about keeping thin lines, and was actually going to print dark-to-light. This print was too special to rely on the easy way. I dug deep (and used up DOZENS of X-acto blades). If you look at Square 3 & 8, you can see the tiny characters. The register held beautifully, as you can see on Square 12, with my monogram and the building with the lighted windows.

Developing Story

 The fourth color, ochre, will serve as the darker tone for the background of the chicken and the horse. This is actually the color combo that spurred my imagination to design the tone-on-tone look of the squares.

The next color is sky blue. This blue will be featured in three squares, and all three will require a great deal of precision cutting. With reduction printing, the previous color always affects the following color, and I do what I can to minimize the effect. In this case, covering the ocre with blue is very tricky. Ochre is, essentially, a green. As such, the yellow in ochre wants to cancel the blue, and the green wants to cancel the red values in the blue, rendering it gray. The best way to minimize the effect is to add purple to the blue. However, there is only so much one can do, because the ink layers need to be thin, and the color needs to be light. I think I got good balance, and I am quite happy with the result.

Whew!

I headed down to the studio, armed with my Plan B and expecting failure. However, as you can see, all is well!

....so far.

But I've learned -- again! --that patience is the most important tool with reduction woodcut. 

Unfortunately, the clock is ticking on this print, or I'd give each color 5 days of drying. I'm hoping 48 hours is enough. We're well into the rainy season right now, so the humidity is a huge issue.

Hoping to print ochre Thursday. After that, we get into the blues!

 

MAYDAY....MAYDAY

Oh, what a weekend. Printed color #2, and things looked gorgeous. I'd hoped to print #3 Saturday night, but the prints were still tacky, so I got up early Sunday. I mixed my ink and prepped the block and....

Disaster. The register was all over the place. It looked like the print had skated over the block on the layer of ink. It was a very sickening feeling. I stopped with about 15 prints left. I hope to try again tonight. If the prints feel tacky I'll wait another day. I had one print that came out sharp, so it's not the block.

It's humid, and I've been trying to rush. I should know better.🤷‍♂️

If I can't save it, I need to start over, but I need to rethink the block.
 

Crossing The Lines

so, now it's on, and it is down to the fine detail nitty gritty. The image is a steel sculpture, so I need to carve out these lines. This is the most intricate carving I've ever done. It went well, though I had one line break. Honestly expected worse. Let's see how it prints!
 

Project F

 

I had to redact parts of this image. What's the big secret? Oh, you'll see. But all that aside, I want to share a few things about the making of this print. First, I am using a brand new paper: Arches 100% cotton, light. I've been using a mould-made sulfite paper, which has always been good...but this prints so nice,vand the sheets are crisp. They have a tiny bit of texture, and I'm hoping I'm not cursing this paper as I move through the layers!

I also think I may have discovered something interesting. Usually, I tamp down with the screw press, hard, and release immediately. Well, during printing this color, I had just tamped down the block when I had to attend to a phone message or something. When I returned a minute later, I took the print off the block, and the print looked better -- I don't know how to describe it, even? Crisp? Whatever, we'll see how that affects the next layers.

The lines are perfect, crisp and open, and I'm feeling good about the next color 

One issue -- I am using thick cardboard for the guides, and one guide split laminations. I had to double brint a sheet to make sure the registration didn't move. Looks good, but I was sweating bullets.

Go Time

 

The cartoon was completed last night, and I've transversed the cut lines to the block. Each mark seen here will be white space. Each line needs to be thin, but consistent, but also not too thin or shallow, to keep from filling in when rolled with ink. Being a reduction woodcut, these lines need to hold up, crisply, through 9 layers of ink. The ink layers must be thick enough to fully support the next layer. It's a delicate balancing act.

Once the cartoon was finished, I made a transparency to work from. I've never used tracing paper to aid in the transfer process, and I'm hoping it's beneficial, because so far it's been great to work with.

There are 8 colors, plus black. These aren't actual colors, just place holders to help me map things out.

Making History

 

I am beginning a big project. I can't say much about it yet (I haven't been sworn to secrecy, but I'd like to make the reveal when the work is done.

This will be a 9-color reduction print with some very intricate cutting work. The work is due June 1, but I hope to be done much sooner. A couple of things I CAN say: it's the most important print I've done and the commissioning organization was most intrigued the reduction woodcut process.

Therefore, I'm hoping to do reduction woodcut printmakers proud. This commission is expected to get some media exposure. I hope to use the opportunity to advocate for arts education.

Every Friend's a Stranger

Back to woodcuts in a second. I wanted to share this clip from today's Buffalo News.

Prosopagnosia is having a moment in the collective consciousness, and I want to do my part to share information about it.
 

The One That Got Away

It was about this time last year when I discovered, to my horror, that I had mistakenly thrown out all copies of this print, "DeSoto Motel II," a new attempt of a print made years earlier. It was to be in last year's Erie County Fair, and was the very best work I'd done in 19 years of printmaking.

This year, I am working on a print that I hope will rival this one. Stay tuned!

Napping Cat Press: A Fresh Start For 2022

 This was my first woodcut, made in January or February of 2022, twenty years ago. I recently took about 4 years away from focusing on printmaking to work on learning cartooning. I am hoping that all that I have learned through my cartoon study will enrich my printmaking.

The print seen here is my first woodcut (though I had done a few early attempts at relief printing using a potato). Amy hates it. I can see why. But I love it because it was the door through which I entered an amazing, fulfilling world of reduction woodcut printmaking. I had a pine board from a bizarre attempt to become a carpenter 6 months earlier, and Amy had a few bottles of fabric paint. The only tool I had to cut with was Amy’s dad’s old rust X-acto craft set. I manipulated a picture of Amy to high-contrast and printed it out on our printer, and traced. It would several months before I began doing prints from my own drawings. But at this moment, when I pulled the paper off of the block, it was like I was struck by lightning.

This print represents the moment that I found my path.

Now I am back in the studio, ready to get back on that path, and I invite you to join me in a very special journey.

Check In

 You have arrived at your destination. "Motel DeSoto II" 9"X7" 12-color reduction woodcut, using Renaissance Graphics oil inks and Shina plywood on machine made sulfite paper.

This building has been demolished to make way for another vacant lot in Olean, NY. We we're lucky enough to see her shortly before a Buffalo development company bought her.  When I printed "Motel DeSoto" in 2013, I'd expressed hope that she'd be saved. No luck. She has a sister in Bradford PA of similar design, though the sign has been modernized.

 

This is actually the third time I've tried to do this scene. I originally started with blocks of bold color, and stopped after two colors because it wasn't my vision. The second try was more my vision, but not quite there. This latest pass, while much closer, still misses for me. So, we'll see where I am with it in 7 years!

There's much I like in MDII, and I've learned a great deal, which I'm excited to put into the next print.👃

Another Brick in the Wall

One more color and I'm done. Will recap soon.
 

The Green, Green Grass of Hotel

just catching up. Green, for the veg.
 

Almost Home

I'm almost done. This layer was supposed to be green, but green is a very transparent color. But I needed a dark gray, so I'm pleased. I need to lighten things up a bit and get some green in there. But the sign is popping nicely. I've been trying to get human elements into my prints. I'm surprised this experiment turned out as well as it did, given how tiny the spot is. As you can see, Beavis is getting a room!😂

 

The Sky Is Falling..Into Place

Nothing adds life to a woodcut sky more than a good rainbow roll. Even though not much of the sky will show, that gentle gradation will, I hope, sell the end of a long day for a weary traveler stopping for the night. When I get all of the darker brick colors in, I think the sky will pop. One
 

Gray Area

 Usually, printing is done lightest to darkest. I have found that it is beneficial to"reset" a bring after a bold color goes down. This gray was originally going to be color #2, but I knew it would affect the bright red. I also knew that the colors to come would.need a buffer after the dark  red. So here is a dark gray that serves as a buffer, but also will be part of the stone work.