Great Aping

A week ago I went to a Watercolour Monotype Printmaking Workshop hosted by a great local artist/musician/craftster/all-round-nice-gal Sarah Hallman. A local group called Les Ateliers organized it.

It was a really fun afternoon. Kudos to all.

Just before leaving my house to go to Sarah's I became totally intimidated at having to come up with an image on the spot surrounded by a bunch of strangers so I quickly swiped a few sheets of reference material from my desk and stuffed them in my purse.  The sheets happened to contain several variations of traditional-tattoo-style Great Apes (because I'd been thinking of painting one soon)... so that's what I ended up making a print of. 

After the initial printing at Sarah's I applied several more layers/styles of "printing" to my ape before feeling happy enough that I put it in a cheap Ikea "Ribba" frame and added it to the "Ribba-Framed Print Gallery" in my kitchen. 

Here's the progress. 

First I loosely drew the ape's face on the paper to be printed:

This is the plate, covered in Gum Arabic and watercolours. Unfortunately I didn't logic-out the fact that I should have reversed the watercolours in order to register them with the drawing. My bad.

Since the drawing and printed colour were so misaligned due to my oversight, I worked into the print with more watercolour. This was the state of things when I left Sarah's that day:

After pondering whether to stash my monster-piece in the closet or the garbage can I ultimately decided to experiment further on it and see what I could do:

- I used a stencil and silkscreen to screen the dark grey hair and pupils,
- the "R" is an old, wooden letterpress letter I have kicking around,
- used masking tape and a lino-roller to add bits of pink and yellow to the background,
- painted into the mouth area,
- used an old eraser to "print" the pink muzzle dots...

I think that's all... This is what I ended up with:

So... after playing around with it throughout the week I liked my ape enough to frame it and hang it in my kitchen (at least for a little while - for the memories of the day and of trying something different).

(I guess I made an "in-between-print" instead of an "in-between-painting" this week...)

Here it is on the wall:

This is only part of the kitchen's  "Ribba Print Gallery"... it continues on another wall.

The closest one (the cat) is a print by Canadian printmaker and graphic novelist Laurence Hyde that I found in the basement of my building!! (It was in an old, falling-apart frame.)

Speaking of cats, here's a (very) little illustration I did recently for an American publication inspired by my own luxuriating cats... just to give you an idea of what my commercial work looks like - in contrast to the Great Ape print.

OK. Thanks again to the hosts of the printing-party and thanks to whoever made it all the way through this post to read this line. I appreciated your eyeballs.

mundane super stuff

What follows is just everyday, around-the-house-stuff. It is therefore "mundane". However, I love making a cozy home, so for me this is all super stuff. 

*****

I took down the wintery pictures and put up more spring-like stuff - like a bunch of pennants I've collected over many years. Why are pennants spring-like you ask? Ummm... Because they remind me of baseball?

Worth the effort, fresh bread.

Starting sweet potato slips.

I put the all swans on the shelf in the living room. Eagerly awaiting the return of the Ottawa Royal Swans to the local rivers from their wintering quarters. 

This is just the other side of the shelf... (the new painting from the previous post is in the middle)

I got this hilarious AND holographic dog picture from the "give-away-spot" in the basement (it had a really nice frame that I'm going to use for something else). Here the cat ponders the presence of the new addition.

That's all for now. Thanks for letting your eyes linger here.

hope SPRING!!!s eternal

I painted the Sri Yantra. 

 

9 triangles that intersect to make 49 triangles. 

Masculine/Feminine. 

 

I took some liberties with the lotus petals...

 

I've wanted to try drawing this for awhile but I was inspired to go all out and paint it by this post from AP Shrewsbury. (Thank you whoever you are out there.)

Another in the "in-between" series (paintings I do to procrastinate between other projects).

Thank you for your attention.

Today I...

... bought this Sesame Seed Ball because my friend told me it was good. And it t was good... although I have no idea what was in there,

... hung my "coolnew" cargo-pockets-shower-curtain (all this pockety goodness can be yours for just $9.99),

...painted with white on this well-used blotting sheet to make a cover for my little book of tattoo flash. It's a shout-out to a sign that Stoney St. Clair had on his shop, "ancient as time, modern as tomorrow."

... and a bunch of other stuff that is too boring or too personal to mention here.

G'night!

The Girl with the Diving-Girl Tattoo

As a birthday gift to myself I took a short trip to Toronto to visit some dear friends and also got a tattoo I've been thinking of for a while. 

Here's the new tattoo. 

She's an early version (1920s) of the famous "Red Diving Girl" logo of the Jantzen swimwear company. They were one of the first companies to make modern, lightweight swimwear - thereby revolutionizing swimming (especially for women). I think one of their early slogans was even something along the lines of "transforming bathing into swimming"... for which we're all grateful. 

The Jantzen website used to have a really great historical timeline but it seems to have disappeared... for now, check the wiki.

I forget what I was researching but when I stumbled across her about a half a year ago but my immediate thought was, "Now there's a get-up for swimming in Canada!" So even though she's the logo of an American company and a the toque/wool sock combo is totally impractical, to me this is a "Great Lakes swimmer". 

The word "tuffi" apparently means "water diver" in Italian... but I don't speak Italian so I'm not really sure. 

I'm not too worried if the translation is wrong, I just like the look of the word. I guess it's sort of become the diving girl's name/label, in my mind. You have to be tough after all, to swim in cold waters. And, metaphorically, you have to be tough/brave to dive into any unknown venture... or even to dive into life itself...

So I guess, as with many of my tattoos, this is sort of a "note-to-self". In this case, to be brave and dive in. And to toughen up a bit. But tough with a cute spelling... so "be tough" in sort of a gentle, light-hearted way. 

Where did I come across the idea for "Tuffi"? From the story of a circus elephant that got spooked on a suspended tram in Germany and jumped out a window. Luckily, he landed in water and escaped unharmed, living another 40 years under the moniker, "Tuffi"

In size and look, this tattoo balances nicely against the boxing girl on my other arm. As a piece of historical advertising, she balances out the Starr Skates (first hockey skates) logo on my other arm. 

She was done by Mike Bialek at New Tribe in Toronto. He's a swell guy who likes to tattoo classic, traditional flash. If that's what you're into, I fully recommend a visit.

Toronto snappers

Tattoo regret? Nah!

Point n' Click through Sonya's Hasselblad

Sonya before and after

no wonder their rugs need cleaning!

big glow globe

go do

a landmark

not spinning

spinning

allan gardens

 

toronto has a flatiron too, and it's older than NYC's

financial district dogs

cn tower

The Trained Eye

Views from the train between Toronto and Ottawa. 

March 1st 2012. 

A "canada-gray" day.*

Took over a hundred pictures. These 11 are the only good ones. 

Missed a lot of cool shots of fishermen and one of a man at a crossing who was taking pictures of my train.

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I know it's hard to read but this pole says, "TAKE WHAT YOU NEED" accompanied by various symbols. Modern-day-hobo-signs? 

This photo is unremarkable but on the way to Toronto there was a man and a German Shepard standing on the peak of the green roof. I took this picture to remember that strange moment.

Lake Ontario, inland ocean.

Still more of the Ontario Ocean

Fishermen and pick-up trucks.

And then it got too dark to take anymore.

The End.

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* Yellow Days, an end-of-summer song by Gord Downie

"Ah still, summer’s always going, turning everything Canada-gray, and I will miss all the not-knowing of all those summer days, but I swear, I will also take morphine and swim, if you take one more look at him…"