The Tunnel of Mortality

The Tunnel of Mortality, a life-size tunnel-book installation at Artisan Gallery, has been extended to September 9th, 2012! The next reception is Friday, July 27, 2012, 5-9pm at Artisan Gallery.

Here’s some shots (click any image to enlarge):

“Come in.” said the spider to the fly….

Once you step in the door, you are in a floor-to-ceiling, darkly wallpapered, little anteroom, about 8ft x 8ft.

Back wall and right corner of anteroom

Chairs are upholstered in the same, matching, printed fabric as the walls.

The richly detailed wallpaper is actually a 10in x 10in linocut pattern printed black onto burgundy duckcloth. About 480 times. If you look closely at one of the “tiles” you will see the underlying theme of the show:

If you look behind you to your right, the outside light looks blinding compared to the dramatic low lighting surrounding you.

Taxidermy chicken NOT for sale.

As you step through the door, into the anteroom, The Tunnel of Mortality is that big framed piece on the right-hand wall. It looks like any other of the framed woodcuts, except as you walk towards or by it, it changes (since it’s a 3-dimensional space, not a flat piece). If you’re not paying attention though, it doesn’t “read” as an interior space, but rather a mirror…or something. A number of visitors were looking behind and above them to figure out where the projector was. Most think it’s a mirror, but can’t figure out how come they don’t see their reflection.

Matching tablecloth and upholstery! This is really the only time I’ve gotten into “interior decorating” (in our real house, nothing matches. I mean, who has time when it takes this long to make pretend rooms?).

Walk into the center of the room, turn to your right, and there’s the tunnel.

The Tunnel of Mortality, framed.

I’m not going to try to explain how this looks in real life, since you really have to go experience it to get it. Suffice it to say, that it’s confusing at first since you can’t quite tell what you’re looking at. Some have said it feels like a mirror.

And here’s a cropped panorama of the center section:

All woodcut or linocut prints on fabric or Tyvek.

Reception is this Friday, 5-9pm at Artisan Gallery (directions).
And the show is up through September 9th.

So, come check it out!
Experience the tunnel!
Sign the camouflaged guestbook!
Read some of the entries in the guestbook here.

This little piggy…

…is going to the Wisconsin Biennial.

"Market Weight Pull-Toy" • 8ft x 4ft • woodcut prints on feedsacks, wood, cardboard, acrylic, training wheels....

As is this tom:

"Turkey Promenade" • 30in x 22in • 5-color reduction woodcut

Wisconsin Biennial at The Anderson Art Center, Kenosha, WI. June 26 – August 7. Reception: June 26, 1:30 – 4pm

2 days left to see MFA Thesis Exhibit

A Pattern of Processing
Now showing today and tomorrow (Thurs) 9-5. Hope you can make it…. Woodcut-printed wallpaper and upholstery, with fancy-framed, reduction-woodcut portraits, and a meat locker. Fun stuff!

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(8ft walls, 8ft carcasses, all woodcut prints)

Market Weight Pull Toy…

…is finished. On display at the Art Lofts Gallery as part of our 3rd year (MFA grad student) show! Opening this Friday night, Sept. 3, 6-9pm. More info here at the UW Madison Art Department.

"Market Weight Pull Toy" • 5ft x 8ft • woodcut prints and paint on feedsacks; wood, cardboard, training wheels, rope (hog side)

"Market Weight Pull Toy" • 5ft x 8ft • woodcut prints and paint on feedsacks; wood, cardboard, training wheels, rope (pork-cuts side)

Corn King t-shirts at Spring Art Tour

Corn King t-shirts now available!

The" Corn King," woodcut prints onto children's tees (front is character, back is text). Click on image to enlarge.

For those of you who expressed interest in the Corn King shirts at the Consumption reception (noting that I didn’t have prices on them–doh!!–my fault for running out of time before the reception), they will be available at the Spring Art Tour this upcoming weekend, at my studio (see S.V. Medaris at the M.H. Spring Art Tour site, #10 on the Google map). More info about tour, maps, etc. at: Mount Horeb Area Spring Art Tour.

I will be printing some t-shirts on Friday, June 11th on the etching press, around noon.

Corn King t-shirts and prints hang drying from lines next to the Takach etching press in S.V. Medaris' studio.

If you have an old shirt you want the Corn King printed on, bring it along. $10 for printing on your shirt, $20 for a printed shirt on one of my tees (a variety are available–a few in each size). You can place an order for a tee in your size if I don’t have what you need–tees, tanks, long-sleeve…. If ordering a custom shirt, turnaround time is 1-2 weeks (depending on t-shirt availability).

Long sleeve tee–a few are available at the Spring Art Tour this weekend at the farm/studio of S.V. Medaris

Also, some other blocks are available for printing on shirts, such as “pork cuts” (a couple tees and an apron available).

Do Chickens dream? Or have nightmares?

Sure seems that way…. I went down to the chicken coop to close up the other night (“close up” means closing the chicken door-to prevent intruders, collecting eggs, checking the waterer, generally checking on the girls). I flicked on the light when suddenly I noticed this startling movement in one of the nesting boxes. One of my “Blondies” (White Crested Black Polish) was dramatically swinging and lunging her head around, it looked like she was in complete agony–beak sticking straight up in the air, with her head and neck winding and convulsing around as if she was posessed. Seizure? Bitten or chewed on by something and she’s in agony? About to die and writhing in agony?

I quickly went to her and grabbed her out of the box to see what was wrong, she squawked and then suddenly stopped moving. I looked at her, and she looked at me. I set her down on the coop floor and she just stood there, little conversational chicken grunts, questioning. I picked her up and she just looked at me as if I was the one with the problem. I put her back in the nest box, and I swear she gave me a look that said “Leave me alone and let me sleep. Jeepers cripes you scared me!”

WTH??!?

So, unless she starts having regular convulsions, I’m gonna assume now that chickens have nightmares. She did look like she was in pain, and she IS the one that all the others peck on her head (I’ve had to spray the top of her head with antiseptic and isolate her when they make her head bleed). She looks like one of those monks from the Middle Ages who shaved the tops of their heads. I’ll try to remember to add a photo here. So maybe she was dreaming they were pecking her head and she was trying to get away?

Here’s a painting of what the White Crested Black Polish hens (from the “chicken-by-the-window” series) look like:

Young Hen of the Whitecrest Family • oil on linen • 10" x 8" (canvas size)

Market Weight Press it is…

A Beautiful Machine

This is a 1910 Potter Proof Press waiting to be cleaned up, have a chase added, and have some proofs printed on it. It’s made of cast iron and very heavy (it was unloaded with a tractor once home on the farm). The weight of things interests me, as we raise hogs for market every year, and the market weight of those hogs is something you have to be aware of. You try to guess when their weight is going to be at the right stage by the time you take them in to be processed, and you typically call months ahead with the butcher date.

Inspiration for the print shop name looms on the wall of the printing room here: A Few Months Past Market Weight, 7ft tall, acrylic on canvas. The story behind the painting is that one year we lost our spot at the butcher (they screwed up and didn’t write our hogs down on the date we requested back in early summer). When they finally were able to get our hogs in, they each averaged over 400lbs. Biiiiiiiig guys. Pork chops the size of dinner plates and all that….