Studio blog of Annie Bissett, an artist working with traditional Japanese woodblock printing (moku hanga)
16 April 2009
More Dorothy May Printing
Added two more layers today - a sort of dingy purple to add more shape to Dorothy's clothing and body:
and a blue-gray for her hair.
Tomorrow I plan to muddy up the water. Here's a raft of Dorothy Mays:
4 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Hi Annie,
I enjoy following your blog and love your work. I hesitate to be critical of such an accomplished artist but am venturing to say that I miss the lovely ghostly billowing form that you started with. I will be interested to see how it comes out in the end and it may be balanced in the entire piece. Jan
Hi Jan, I don't at all mind critical comments and I understand what you're saying. I liked that ghostly outline as a possible stopping point too. I decided to continue on because my intention in this print -- in this series, really -- is to try to bring to life events and people that we know very little about. Rather than leave Dorothy ghostly, I decided to make her look quite real, to show a real human being who met a tragic end before she could actually set foot in a new land.
I guess in saying this, I'm admitting that my concept often takes precedence over artistic concerns. Leaving Dorothy as a ghostly outline might make a better print, a better thing to look at, but it won't satisfy my interest in trying to reach her as a real human being. Women especially are invisible in our historical record.
Thanks for saying what you said. It helped me know why I've done what I've done.
Poor Miss Dorothy. She is drowning quite nicely! I really love the ribbons of hair and her clothing billowing in the water. Thanks for sharing, Annie! The water looks like it has shafts of light in it too!
4 comments:
Hi Annie,
I enjoy following your blog and love your work. I hesitate to be critical of such an accomplished artist but am venturing to say that I miss the lovely ghostly billowing form that you started with. I will be interested to see how it comes out in the end and it may be balanced in the entire piece. Jan
Hi Jan, I don't at all mind critical comments and I understand what you're saying. I liked that ghostly outline as a possible stopping point too. I decided to continue on because my intention in this print -- in this series, really -- is to try to bring to life events and people that we know very little about. Rather than leave Dorothy ghostly, I decided to make her look quite real, to show a real human being who met a tragic end before she could actually set foot in a new land.
I guess in saying this, I'm admitting that my concept often takes precedence over artistic concerns. Leaving Dorothy as a ghostly outline might make a better print, a better thing to look at, but it won't satisfy my interest in trying to reach her as a real human being. Women especially are invisible in our historical record.
Thanks for saying what you said. It helped me know why I've done what I've done.
I just love this image of Dorothy May. What an imaginative treatment of your theme. 8-] I love the colors too.
Poor Miss Dorothy. She is drowning quite nicely! I really love the ribbons of hair and her clothing billowing in the water. Thanks for sharing, Annie! The water looks like it has shafts of light in it too!
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