This Saturday night: Farm to Fork (to Fabulous!)

Opening reception Saturday, March 16, 7-10pm.

Showing with my friend and fellow artist Alicia Rheal in our From Farm to Fork (to Fabulous!) exhibit. The opening reception is a gala celebration and benefit for the Walls of Wittenberg. More info, and the poster, below. Highlight? Why Nueske’s Applewood Smoked Meats of course.

This is going to be a really fun (and delicious) opening reception! (Click on poster to enlarge) And, if you drive up early, you can visit Nueske’s Company Store in Wittenberg (Sat. hours: 8-4).

The WowSpace is located at 114 Vinal St – Wittenberg, WI. Easy to find…Just look for the 8ft hanging hog carcasses and the giant pull-toy pig (cuts) in the front windows along the main street of downtown Wittenberg!

And here’s more info about the Walls of Wittenberg ongoing mural project.

One section of the wall installed for now….

Installing…. That’s an 18ft long Hampshire stud boar on right (the model, Pioneer is owned by Monson Show Pigs in Richland Center). And that’s an 8ft pull-toy pig in front window.

Cow for Graze restaurant

Graze Restaurant asked me to paint a cow for them. Here’s the progression (click any cow to enlarge), most recent progress at top.

If you want to read this from the beginning, starting with the delivery of the cow, just start reading at the bottom of this post and scroll up….

Done! Finished varnishing last week. Whew!

Wanted to get this uploaded before 2013, so here you go:

We all breathe a sigh of relief at the completion and varnishing of the cow.

Detail

Side 2.

Side 2, detail.

Pretty much done…

Side two almost done (gotta soften the pasture-to-black transition on the right side of the state, soften the udder-to-white-fur transition, and clean up the blacks and whites…)

A closer look…

Side one details corrected. Done.

November–almost December–Aaaack!

What a nightmare this has been. Should be easy-squeezy, but with the other deadlines in October/November…. Oh well. Working away on side two now–getting there! Here’s side one, pretty much finished (below):

Side one pretty much done

You can see that face is getting there–pretty much done.

Final (Side One) State of Wisconsin with products

Wisconsin products modified (got rid of those white outlines around each object–just wasn’t working).

Side One almost done

Side one almost done…still needs some rearrangement of black spots…

You can see the horns painted now (over the texture added in the step below). Face pretty much done. Eyes still need some work, but close…. Hooves made to look more realistic/3-d with painting in the shadows to create depth.

Adding texture to the horns

To build up the texture in the horns, I glob on various acrylic gel mediums. This one is a mix of Golden’s molding paste and soft gel.

October 1 progress:

Some of the locally-sourced, Wisconsin(!) products that Graze uses in it’s cooking. Products blocked in, painting in progress.

September 23 progress:

Black and white Holstein colors blocked in (with my little helpers, for scale of course).

September, 2012

Blocking in the distinctly Wisconsin Holstein fur pattern.

Underpainting begun on forehead–trully a Wisconsin Holstein….

First thing is getting the white out. A layer of orange as the colored ground to make subsequent layers on top glow…

Some info from an earlier post:
Aug. 20
Graze restaurant has commissioned me to paint a cow for their patio.

The design will be a holstein (modeled after one of the dairy cows milked at Sassy Cow Creamery, where Graze gets much of their dairy products). Incorporated onto the black/white holstein pattern, will be painted the specific, locally sourced products–produce, Highland beef, trout, etc (that Graze buys from local farmers in the area)–from which Executive Chef Tory Miller and the Graze team create the dishes on their menu.

It just arrived today…

Unwrapping

Yep, it’s a girl!

The Amazing Dancing Dog!

Dexter does it again. Isn’t he just AMAZING!?!!?? More so with all caps, right?

Dexter did it again. Pose that is.

Another folio exchange, this one with the theme “Circus, Circus” so of course I had to do this little circus dog, and then modeled it after old circus posters somewhat. Circus World in Baraboo (and those fantastic old posters) remains an inspiration to me, since childhood. I got over my fear of clowns doing this one–looking at just tons of old clown photos till they didn’t look scary anymore–yeah! Happy day!! I think this clown still looks somewhat ominous, but it had to be dark and simply-rendered to show off my little star in the foreground.

The photo shoot was pretty funny–Dexter did a lot of “dancing” for cheese…. I bet he thought he’d died and gone to heaven.

The Amazing Dancing Dog
- Reduction woodcut on Arches cover
- 23in x 8 1/2in

This was for sale at Artisan Gallery, but it (along with other ones I took for the Small Works show earlier this month) sold rather quickly. I will frame up another at some point soon, and get it to Artisan, but have to get that cow finished first!

NOTE: No animals were harmed in the posing/making of this print. Spoiled, yes; hurt, no.

Mount Horeb Area Spring Art Tour this Fri, Sat, Sun!

Weekend Schedule for Sue:

1 of 5 new cards available this weekend

Friday: Cutting 2 new blocks. Printing a new (Dexter) tee by end of day.

Saturday: Cutting and printing 2 new reduction relief blocks.

Sunday: 1st of 2 blocks should be nearing completion.

5 new card designs

Both hard and soft cover versions of CLUCK: From Jungle Fowl to City Chicks is also available.

The Mount Horeb Spring Art Tour

Now in it’s 5th year, the Spring Art Tour features 21 artists who will open their studios to the public for 3 days in June. This year the open studio event is June 10, 11, 12 (Friday, Saturday, Sunday), 10-5 daily.

Open daily 10-5

Dexter’s a Superstar…

He made it into the Eyeworthy feature of The Wisconsin State Journal.

Big blocks, little dogs.

As the big blocks and prints multiply, the dogs seem to be growing smaller.

(click image to enlarge) Giant chicken about to crush 2 tiny dogs

A new block–that big guy on the right. Going to try to get it done within 1 week’s time–kind of need to. Wish me luck

(Hanging on the left is one of the finished carcasses, just completed this weekend. This is one of a group that will be in an installation at the “From Pattern to Processing” show opening reception May 7th)

The giant chicken print will be one of many Beastly Prints in our 3-person show (Briony Morrow-Cribbs, Patrick Smyzcek, and me) at the Overture (reception May 6th).

The carving begins (click to enlarge)

This is one way to carve an 8ft tall birch plywood block (at right).

Why a red block?
If you’ll notice, around the perimeter of the rooster’s head, you can see the bare wood showing through–that’s where I’ve cut. If I don’t color the block beforehand, I have a hard time seeing clearly where I’ve cut.

The process: 
1.) Draw image onto 4x8ft birch plywood block with brush and waterproof drawing ink. Let dry thoroughly.
2.) Mix up a thin wash of acrylic (any color you want that’s transparent and obviously not wood color nor black) and water, and brush lightly over the whole board. Let dry thoroughly.
3.) Coat entire board with thin layer of shellac. This coats the board, sealing it somewhat, which will make the cuts sharper/cleaner and will keep the ink from soaking into the wood too much when it’s time to ink and print the block.

Carcass prints take form

(click image to enlarge) Priming in progress.

Continuing on, a couple days after printing the carcasses….

…the prints were left to hang for a couple of days for the ink (oil-based) to dry, then the prints were cut out with scissors. After that, I prepared these pink insulation foam shapes cut from 4ft x 8ft sheets. I cut the shapes out with a small, hand-held, electric jigsaw, then lightly sanded the edges, so there were no sharp-looking corners/edges. Then, 3 coats of white primer, so the pink won’t show through the print (masa is a very thin paper and the pink would show through the paper without the white base beneath it).

(click to enlarge) The finished print, adhered to form, hanging next to the woodcut block.

What fun! It’s done!! Now, I just have to do print/assemble three more.

See them all together in an installation at the May 7th “From Pattern to Processing” show (and after that, I’ll post to the blog).

Links to earlier stages showing carcass block being cut, and first prints.

Carcass block done

(click image to enlarge) Block is done being cut, and first print has been printed! Zuzu (on left) is happy to be held, and Dexter (on right, with tongue) is elated.

Block is done! I printed the first two prints today (you can see where the red ink was rolled off the edges), and boy do they take a long time when you’re printing with a wooden spoon!!! I’m not very good at it–patience sorely lacking….

You can see the prints below. In the 2nd photo, the first print is on the left, and though it’s probably not obvious here, it IS fainter for various reasons: It’s the first print (ink soaks up into the woodblock somewhat with that first layer of ink rolled on), I’m inexperienced with printing this way, and I used the rough side of the Masa paper (thinking the print would stick more to the block and perhaps slip less). Since I’m printing these vertically, I was worried about the paper slipping/moving while I’m rubbing/printing the block, so I used a more porous side of the paper to print on, means the ink soaks into the paper more on this side.

(click image to enlarge) Prints are left to hang for a couple of days until ink is dry to touch and print can be handled.

The 2nd one came out much darker–thick blacks and full red–as it had a thicker layer of ink rolled on, I used the smooth side of the masa (no slippage–ink is sticky enough to hold onto the paper even with this vertical setup), and I paid more attention to how I was printing/pressing/rubbing the spoon over the raised parts…. Still, I can see this takes practice, and I don’t love printing this way, but it gets the job done when the block is too big for the press (which is “only” 30in x 40in–plenty big for most jobs).

You can see the first stages of working on this block at: Cutting up meat.

More to come when prints get cut out and applied to forms….

Cutting up meat

8ft x 4ft piece of birch plywood. Carving mostly with reciprocating carver plus some hand gouges.

Starting to cut:

Pig carcass drawn in red acrylic wash and black ink before carving begins. Dexter and Zuzu to scale.

 

And

After a few days worth of cutting, almost done:

Uncooperative Zuzu refuses to pose calmly. Does not share artist's enthusiasm for carving fake meat

 

Reciprocating carver or gouge, is a wrist/hand/arm saver.

The studio (and beverage) tunnel

When we woke up yesterday, after the blizzard, we had 6ft drifts (see Feb 2 post ) and the path to the studio was drifted in.

So I started shoveling.

Zuzu supervises the digging

Once the tunnel was dug, we could get to the studio. I went first and showed the littles (Dexter behind Zuzu) how awesome this would be.

Showing them how to go through the tunnel.

Out in the studio, there is also my Diet Coke supply.

I began to teach Dexter and Zuzu about how this could be the beverage tunnel.

With Diet Coke in hand we successfully retrieve the first can.

And then Zuzu piped up, agreeing to be my little drug-runner. That’s my girl!

Zuzu in action!

And then Ivan tried his hand at helping with the adult beverages. We decided to let him do the heavy lifting. This is a bottle of Furthermore Brewery’s Fatty Boombalatty.

Ivan handles precious cargo....

The beverage tunnel is a success!