New Prints: A New Cardboard Series, Plus a Few Potato Prints

Squared: High Oval, ink on Sekishu natural paper; image size 8 x 8, paper size 18 x 18 in.; ed. 4

Squared: Sunken Circle, ink on Sekishu natural paper; image size 8 x 8, paper size 18 x 18 in.; ed. 5

 During my most last printing session, I worked on two small cardboard prints, part of what I see as an ongoing series that I've decided to title Squared: one shape within an 8 x 8 inch square. I like the simplicity of the idea, and the containment of a shape within the square bounds; the shapes of my most recent prints have all escaped the rectangle.

Squared studies

Here are a few studies that I did when first thinking about this series; I have more in pencil sketches. Sometimes my different mediums influence each other, as these did a recent textile work, which you can see here. 

Untitled 27, ink on Nishinouchi paper, 14 x 11 in.

Because I worked on two editions of cardboard prints, I didn't have a huge amount of energy for potato prints, but I did 4 that I pretty much like. In 27, I stamped the green shapes then stood looking at them for quite a while, finally deciding that the print needed something else. So I cut a small square and added the 4 square square to the upper right; I think that the balance is pretty good with it.

Untitled 28, ink on Twinrocker paper, 3 x 15 1/4 in.

I had a long narrow strip of paper among my pile of potato print papers; sometimes I'm loathe to throw something seemingly useless away. I don't know... maybe this is just useful as a bookmark for a very large book.

Untitled 29, ink on Twinrocker paper, 11 x 13 in.

I dipped the flattened doughnut shape into green and blue ink to get the variation of color; I also dipped the ends of the fluttery long rectangles into green.

Untitled 30, ink on Twinrocker paper; 2 panels, each 6 1/2 x 15 in. 

Using the same shape as 27 above, I stamped the shape and its ghost, the shape upended and its ghost, making a very bare print. In the diptych format, I believe that the tension and energy from leaping the space between the panels adds a lot to the image; it'd be interesting to experiment with more panels....next time.