Spring Art Tour schedule is up

The Mount Horeb Area Spring Art Tour is this weekend! If you want general information, including maps, list of artists, etc., please go to MHAAA web site.

If you want to know what’s going on at my studio during the tour, go to S.V. Medaris’ 2010 Spring Art Tour page (or just click on Spring Art Tour tab above). Schedule of demos and what I’m working on is listed there. Hope you can make it!

Cowtography cow on top of hilltop greets visitors to the farm studio

“Consumption”: The critics speak!

Well the reviews are mixed regarding S.V. Medaris’ Master of Arts exhibit, Consumption. Here’s a reaction to one of the large-scale pieces (*hint* click image to enlarge):

The Magnificent Seven

Boy critics voice opinion through interpretive stance, in front of "The Magnificent Seven", a 14ft x 9ft mixed media piece (acrylic and printmaking on canvas and feedsacks) by S.V. Medaris

(click on any photo to see larger version)

"The Magnificent Seven" by S.V. Medaris • 14ft x 9ft • Mixed media (acrylic and printmaking on canvas and feedsacks)

And some more photos from the closing reception:

"The dark M&M's are terrific!"

Young girl poses for camera, ignoring the hogs closing in behind her.

I ♥  Chicken

Looking through the window, into the interior light of "I ♥ Chicken."

Here it is, closed:

"I ♥ Chicken" by S.V. Medaris • 12in x 8in x 4in • found objects, light, recycled prints, acrylic on specimen box.

…and open:

Interior of "I ♥ Chicken"

The Meat Locker

Approaching the Meat Locker (a tunnel book):

Closed:

"The Meat Locker" by S.V. Medaris • 10in x 10in x 12in (deep) • tunnel book with hand-colored lithographs and inkjets on watercolor paper

Open:

Fight or Flight

Another opinion via interpretive stance by the boys for "Fight or Flight," 8ft x 8ft, acrylic and monotype and relief printmaking on watercolor paper, feedsack, and canvas.

"Fight or Flight" by S.V. Medaris • 8ft x 8ft • Mixed media (acrylic paint, monotype and relief printing on feed sacks, paper, canvas)

A Wisconsin Tradition

Yes, the dark m&m's were a hit.

"A Wisconsin Tradition" by S.V. Medaris • 8ft x 6ft • acrylic paint, relief printing and lithography on watercolor paper

Close up of "A Wisconsin Tradition." Kitten is hand-colored lithograph. This image is from a moment during a deer-processing on a nearby farm.

Closing Reception (main exhibit):

At the Art Lofts. "Consumption" closing reception, May 20, 2010

If you missed the show and want to see most of the work in person (including most of the large-scale works), come to the Spring Art Tour this weekend (June 11, 12, 13). Maps to the studios and more info at Mount Horeb Spring Art Tour.

and Studio 1134 (the second gallery):

Inside Studio 1134 (Gallery 2)

The "Corn King," a woodcut character made for the "Consumption" show (on child's XS t-shirt) by S.V. Medaris

Corn King apparel available at the Spring Art Tour this weekend.

Inside Studio 1134

Prints and t-shirts, including diptych of "The Stalking of the Great White Pyrenees"

More grad school work: prints, broadsides and mixed media

Birds in Art 2010

Ran screaming around the house when I found out this morning via email. Dogs wagging tails, but looking concerned, until they realized I was ok. Ivan (the Pyr, the guardian of all), plunked down in my computer room to keep an eye on the situation to be sure I was alright…. I made it in Birds in Art this year. Can’t believe it. Only made it once before with On the Run in 2005, and I submit work almost every year (since 2002). Anyway, the relief-printed pull-toys made it in this time–that’s why I’m so excited–it isn’t the medium I usually submit to Birds in Art.

"Back in the Day, Poultry Edition" • mixed media assemblage (hand-colored relief prints, wood, acrylic, farm journals from 1800s) • 27" tall

For those who aren’t familiar with this event, Birds in Art is an international, juried show they hold every year up in Wausau (WI) at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum. There really are wildlife artists from all over the world who come to the opening celebrations, so it’s a pretty amazing event. Every year, many of the Master Wildlife Artists from years past show up, so it’s really thrilling to meet them in person. Some of the Master Wildlife Artists from years past have been Carl Brenders, Robert Bateman, Guy Coheleach, Maynard Reece, and many others (including Owen Gromme in 1976–the first year). Andrea Rich was the Master Wildlife Artist in 2006, and she is one of my all-time favorite woodcut artists–really incredible work.

So, Back in the Day, Poultry Edition will be at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum for this year’s Birds in Art Exhibit, opening weekend Sept. 11, 12. Public opening on Saturday, Sept. 11, details to follow at my exhibits page.

The Stalking of the Great White Pyrenees

The Stalking of the Great White Pyrenees
10″ x 24″ each panel
Hand-colored linocut

New Work
Originally created for a folio exchange organized by Melanie Yazzie of University of Colorado, Boulder, called “Los Animales Cute.” Each print measures (image size) 24″ x 10″ So, x 2 = 48″ long total prints. For the folio exchange, the parameters were: 24″ x 10″ print, folded down to 10″ x 8″ so I printed both sides–part one and two of “Stalking….”

For future print editions, I’ve printed each panel separately, and will mat/frame each. So hanging side by side, framed they should look sweet. Framing some up within the week….

The subject matter–dogs, here, on this farm–they’re a laugh-a-minute. Soooo serious, calculating, predictable, and utterly unique even though they’re the same species. So…with subject matter like this, and totally “braggin’ on” my muses, the blocks practically carved themselves.

Dexter (top) is in stalking mode, focused 100% on Ivan. If you were to call him now, he wouldn’t hear you. He’s getting ready to charge. Zuzu (foreground) is excited and upset. She’s barking and digging in snow and knows what Dexter is going to do and doesn’t like it. She will eventually jump on Dexter (after he attacks Ivan), dominating him, to make him stop.

Each 10″ x 24″ (Two-part print)

Ivan is smiling. He loves it when he is chased. He turns into a big, goofy, bouncing target. Leaps into the air and runs and runs and laughs, while Dexter growls and bites and throws himself at him. Ivan is anticipating the chase here–knowing that Dexter is getting ready to charge. He weighs over 100 lbs, so with the “littles” at 14lbs each, he really has nothing to fear–thus the smile and the fun of being chased.

Thought about it for months. Took about a week in terms of planning, drawing, cutting, printing…. Printing: a 3-6 hours for each side of 20 or so prints. Hand-coloring of all happened in another night. “Night” translates to about an 8 hr stretch that sometimes happens in day (2p-10p), or 10p-4a or just whenever I can fit it in around a full-load of classes (including 2 academics–yikes!), 1/2 time day job (web designer/illustrator for The Why Files), farm life, making prints/art for benefits and own business…. Not sleeping much these days (2 hrs each, 2 nights in a row…yuk!!!!…paying for it now, but took a nap and now I’m functioning again).

Time to study and sketch and study….

Printin’ with the littles!

In heaven with the new Takach, and the littles:

That’s Zuzu on the left, thinking…. And Dexter (the licky one) on the right. Brother and sister from different litters, same ma (Midget the ratty) and pa (Watson the JRT). My muses

Just finished printing canvases for Drive-by Press’ Tower of Babble collaborative for SGC this year. Printing on canvas, and then t-shirts as well. A success!

1st printing

1st printing on new Takach press:

Woodcut block printed on t-shirts (and canvas) for collaborative project by Drive By Press. See Drive By Press’ photostream on Flickr.

And the finished shirt!

This technique (carving into MDF, printing onto t-shirts with etching press) was taught by Joseph Velasquez of Drive By Press. Thank you Joseph! Also been printing on canvas (same design) for a collaborative project to be presented by Drive By at the SGC Conference (Southern Graphics Council) this March in Philadelphia. It’s why the block was cut in the first place–for this Drive By “tribute.”

Beautiful machine

Even the label/brandname Potter Proof Press is gorgeous. This letterpress is about 1800 lbs. of pure cast iron.

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….

Another monotype

Chicken Breasts

(Monotype on Rives BFK cream)

Modeled after one of my broiler chickens–one of the cockerels, fully grown within a couple of months. These birds are huge. Their breasts are huge. At this angle, the male looked sort of matronly–at least in the breast area. When mature (ready for butchering) they are extremely large birds, and waddle along, breasts low to the ground. They are a very different shape from the other, lighter, egg-laying breeds, the ornamental breeds and even the other breeds of “heavies” that I raise.