Of course there's text on this print. I seem to be constitutionally incapable of making a print with no writing on it. I briefly considered carving all these words, but my shoulder and arm are hurting from working on the computer during last month's big commercial job fest, so I decided I couldn't face carving another block of text. I decided to hand letter instead, which is only slightly less taxing on my hand, but less taxing nonetheless. I bought a couple of brown chisel-tipped archival
Prismacolor markers and set about doing it.
These are native American place names that are still in use today. I made sure to include names from every state in the U.S. There are over 200 names and I'm lettering them by hand on every print (I expect an edition of 7).
You can really see the funky blotchy edges that are created by printing moku hanga with stencils in these closeup photos. I don't mind them, though. It's good for me, a perfectionist, to allow some roughness into my work. And I think that the roughness works with this topic.
One more printed layer to come...
4 comments:
Lovely handwriting, but I wouldn't have expected anything less. I am working on the idea that a certain funkiness reflects the natural fluctuations of the QI around us and that's OK, we are human, alive. The Daoiest potters used to open the kiln in mid fire and throw in colored sand to catch the Qi in the glaze.
I like that way of thinking.
Is that Shiawassee I see??? Actually I see "awssee" but it got me all excited anyway!
Hi Linda. Sorry, that was my bad -- it says Hiawassee.
Post a Comment