Sunday

This printmaking project was really successful I think.  And I often think this is a function of amount of personal investment I have in a piece.  It was certainly personal to me, and it evolved right around the time of Paw-Paw's death.  I call this piece 'Sunday' and it preserves the common memory I have of Paw-Paw, riding the farm on the gator.  This was common on a Sunday afternoon.  But Sunday also makes reference to his stage in life, Sunday being the end of the week, Sunday being the day for the Lord.  The sunset also references the end of a long, beautiful day a metaphor for the end of life. 

The process we are work with is called a reduction print, or 'Suicide Print', because areas are carved out in stages, a different color printed in each layer after more of the surface is reduced.  'Suicide' because you can't go back and reprint once you get started carving.  I instantly thought this related to the way I often work in Photoshop, the process of creating layers that build on each other.  I created this composition as a photo-montage and then determined the appropriate color palette and broke it down into layers.

photo-montage

My photoshop rendering, the goal for the final print.

The first layer was the brilliant sky.  There is the image of the blend roll of ink.

Ink rolled onto my linoleum block.  Nothing is carved out because there is no white in this image.  One of the most important parts of this assignment is making sure that everything lines up at the same place on each successive run through the press.  So a registration jig is used with every print.  This jig has pin in it that align with points you create on each sheet of paper.

Here, the jig is shown, with the paper in place.  A sturdy piece of cardboard and then a thick felt blanket  are placed on top of this and the jig is carefully removed before running through the press.

Sunset printed!  Round 1 through the press.

At home I transferred the image to the linoleum, and cut away the necessary portions for the second round of printing. (Essentially I cut away those areas where I wanted the warm sunset to show through).

Next was a blend roll of white and blue.

Inked plate on the press, the paper ready to accept the next color.

Round 2 through the press.  Boy, that sky really vibrates, doesn't it!  Here you can see, despite the jig, the alignment was slightly off.  Not a big deal at this point; I'm pretty sure subsequent layers of printing will hide this.

 Blend roll number 3.  All the sly is now carved away.  I also created a masking layer to prevent chatter from the sky from transferring to the top.  The colors I mixed for this layer wasn't exactly what I intended, but it was close enough.

Round 4 of printing was solid black, and a maze of masking paper was required to make sure there wasn't any unintentional chatter.

The final result.  Very dynamic, and very personal.  Mom, Dad, Brother, Sister, I've got another print with your name on it for Christmas.