Check back next week to see completed works and more about life here at OG. Happy Summer!
Patsy brought some beautiful weather with her from California--finally sunny days here in Steamboat; a perfect kick-off for our summer of back to back projects. We have been so lucky to have the amazingly talented Christie Ginanni Stepan, who owns Fancy Ink Press in downtown Steamboat, help us this first week. Sue and Christie worked together with Patsy a few years ago. They both have been busy making aquatints, etching plates, and proofing prints for Patsy's project. We are also so happy to have our first official intern at OG, Ashley Denio, coming from St. Mary's, Pennsylvania and just graduated from Alfred University. The shop feels full of energy and hard work (and new people!) Patsy is working on two series of prints with different themes that will be available as portfolios as well as individually. The extremely delicate and fine textures in the plates as well as the carefully planned out layers of shapes and tones of color are making gorgeous images. We have been proofing all week getting combinations of colors and plates right, and they are all coming together cohesively and beautifully. They will make truly breathtaking, jewel-like pieces of art. This picture shows an aquatinted plate that Sue was "stopping out" using asphaltum--she painted very carefully over her predetermined square. When it is etched in the acid, the blocked out portion will stay smooth and no ink will grab on to that area when wiped with dense black ink. Christie and Patsy discussing the proofs of the plates...is it dark enough or light enough? Enough tone around the edges? Should these three go together?? Patsy measuring out and making lines for a template for a large scale print that is still in the works! Lovlies Christie and Ashley wiping plates (one of hundreds of times!) to print Paging Dr. Stepan..! Christie rockin one of Sue's lab coats, her dad's magnifying glasses and particle mask, carting plates to be cleaned after printing. Surgery and printing really ARE similar! (At least some of the garb is...) Proofs looking sculptural and intense on the wall Getting closer...discussing proofs with Julia (our blogger) and what needs to be kept/changed Finally applying our vinyl 'OG' lettering to our entry door. Oehme Graphics now official! The first prints for Patsy's editions. Still lots to go! Ashley is organizing print notes so we don't forget the complex ways to order and wipe them.
Check back next week to see completed works and more about life here at OG. Happy Summer!
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The past ten days at Oehme Graphics zipped by as Melissa impressed us with her prolific pace. She finished her project completing a total of 66 monotypes as well as an edition print for our Stairway to Heaven series. "Senso" is the title for her prints ranging in size from 18 1/2'' x 25'' to 31 1/2'' x 26'' and in price from $1500-$2200. She also made a large series entitled "Copper Ridge" which are 39'' x 26 1/2'' and $2800 each. Every piece makes an individual emotive statement, which changes and deepens when paired with other pieces in the collection. Melissa's lovely vellums waiting to be pressurized together to make magic. Layers, and layers and layers..! Sue placing one of Melissa's painted vellums on the press to be run over initial layers of ghost prints. The "before" shot... And after! Prints drying on the wall, printed vellums on the table, Julia printing proofs for an edition--the shop in action!
Melissa's prints now available on our website, www.oehmegraphics.com, where you can view all of her monotypes. As always, please contact the shop for additional information and any questions. Patsy Krebs coming next Friday with special guest printer Christie Ginanni Stepan! Stay tuned... Melissa Meyer arrived at Oehme Graphics on Monday with a pile of watercolors painted on vellum ready to print! This is Melissa's fifth project with Sue, which became quickly apparent to Julia as she witnessed the fluidity and ease of their collaborative working style. The first order of business was to rearrange the tables so that Melissa had a huge space on which to paint and then arrange her vellums to see which pieces would look the best together. Sue had picked her up at the airport at 12 and printing was underway by 2, after a wonderful lunch by Julia! This photo is of Melissa's images getting fan blasted to speed up the drying process. The vellums cannot be printed until the watercolor paint is completely dry. The cotton rag paper we print them on is "unsized," meaning that there is no binder in the fibers and makes it almost spongelike when wet. The sheets are first dipped in water and then calendared, which means that we run the wet paper through the press by itself to even out the wetness and to get rid of excess water. Then, when we place the paper over the vellum on the press, the dampness of the paper releases the dry watercolor and makes the image come off cleanly as intended. It is inspiring to watch Melissa work, as she works with such studied and clear intention. Many of Melissa's prints have multiple layers of her vellums printed on top of one another. She utilizes the "ghost" of each vellum as well, usually getting at least two runs through the press out of each watercolor. The second run always comes out softer and fainter, making them perfect for backgrounds to build up light and depth. The above two images are prints of Melissa's made on the first day she was here. All of Melissa's images will be available on our website by the last week of May, or call us if you need images earlier. Check back soon for more about Melissa's project and to see more prints.
The sun is finally shinning today in Steamboat, wishing all a happy spring! Ken finished his project having completed 43 monoprints entitled Notes From the Edge of the World. He used stencils, stamps, and watercolors to compose these bold yet ethereal pieces. Ken also made a series of edition prints using etched copper plates and solar plates. They will be available for sale as single prints and as a portfolio suite of seven. The picture above gives you an idea of how we make the editioned prints. The orange piece is the solar plate, which is etched using UV rays from our lovely new solar plate box rather then the sun (which allows us to make plates even on the snowiest of Steamboat days!) The above two images are the drawings on vellum that Ken made using black ink. They are the templates for the solar plates; when we put the image over the plate in the UV box, it burns away the areas that are black. Then we can make them any color by wiping ink into the plate. Please contact the shop if you would like any more info on Ken Buhler's project and prints!
We are also happy to announce that our website is FINALLY up and running! We are so happy to have everything up for everyone to see. Please take a moment to peruse the website if you haven't already! We have all of our artist projects up from this year so far as well as selections from the Oehme Graphic's collection. Melissa Meyer up next! First of all, since we haven't posted in a while, we have to show off our newly completed workshop! The shop has been in a state of transformation since we opened in December, and during the projects we have been improvising and making due with what we had. In between each project our wonderful builders, Bill Wetherby and Matt Mraz, have been working hard to get each component of the shop finished and together. Our new etching room is complete with a beautiful handmade aquatint box made by Matt, Bill, and Bob Rowe, a solar plate exposure unit, also handmade and designed by Sue and Matt, and a steel facing tank that Randy, Sue's husband, kindly dug out from six feet of snow in their backyard! Everything is also covered in a fresh coat of paint, which throughly brightened up the space and made viewing prints on the walls more enjoyable. This project with Ken Buhler has been so exciting for us because we finally get use all of our fun printmaking goodies and...ETCH some COPPER PLATES! Ken Buhler and his lovely girlfriend, Rebecca Chace, were welcomed last Sunday by Steamboat's snowy spring. They took advantage of the snowy but warmer days and took some walks around Copper Ridge. Couldn't resist posting this sweet pic. Love their winter gear! (I think they fit right in here..!) Ken came to Oehme Graphics equipped with some drawings on vellum that he had been working on at home in Brooklyn, NY. This made it easy for us to jump right in the project and begin by developing solar plates from the drawings. We would proof the plates by wiping them in plain black ink. This way we could see how they printed and think about combinations of the plates, and how they would layer together to make workable pieces. Here is a picture of our proofing wall, with each print representing a different plate. From there, Ken was able to make more plates using hardground and softground etching techniques and allowed Sue to perfect the strength of our acid, as well as getting used to all the nuances of our new working etching room! Ken adding drypoint using a wire brush and stencils to his hard ground etched copper plate. One of Ken's gorgeous first editionable print sets! Made with two solar plate etchings as well as a hard ground etched plate. Ken has also been taking time to make watercolor monoprints, creating earthy and etherial drawings using his amazingly beautiful collection of stamps, stencils, and mark making: "Ghost" vellums, after running through the press once or twice. As you can see, pigment is still left behind after printing--it is possible to get another image out of the vellum, which leaves a more "ghostly" and lighter image then the one before. Perfect for backgrounds and layering. Below are a few of the completed monoprints! With other shop news, Oehme Graphics was selected by Stewart & Stewart, a printmaking publisher in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan to represent our prints in the Capital Art Fair in Washington, DC this weekend!
If you are in the DC area, please go check it out! Here is a link to the site: http://www.capitalartprintfair.com/home.html Check back soon! More of Ken's project to follow soon... It was an inspiring experience to watch Jason's project progress during his two weeks at Oehme Graphics. He truly immersed himself in experimenting with the endless ideas inherent through the printmaking process. Jason made prints using solar plates, collagraphs, stencils, vellums and carved komatex board, all simultaneously and interchangeably. Each series (and every piece, for that matter) has its own personality, yet they all look beautiful together as a cohesive group. His enthusiastic energy and love for creating is present in each one. Every morning Julia would take down the prints from the wall (we staple the edges to the wall in order to dry and flatten the pieces), and by the end of the day, it would be completely covered again. Jason was thoughtful and thorough in his decision making when choreographing a piece, but unselfconscious and uninhibited in his pursuit of getting the work where he wanted it. This would sometimes mean pieces would stay up for a couple of days, so Jason could meditate on them, and then final layers would be added to pull the various elements together. It was great fun to work with him (from our printmaker's standpoint) because of his willingness to play with the process, and his ability to utilize the multitude of techniques that we introduced to him. He also added some bumpin' new stations to our Pandora account, which kept us groovin' and motivated through our 10 hour days! The first moments of undertaking the komatex as a matrix for prints--using intaglio wiping (leaving ink down into the carved out spaces and wiping away the top) in conjunction with relief rolling the board with brayers. This technique coats the top layer with ink and leaves the carved areas white. Introducing the "Stairway to Heaven" portfolio by Oehme Graphics! Every year, each artist that comes to Oehme Graphics, in addition to their individual projects, will also be making an edition or a series of monoprints of twenty prints (plus proofs). The only regulation is that the image fits on a 12'' x 12'' piece of paper. The shop will display them all at the end of the year (where they will live) on our very long stairway that leads to our lovely living space upstairs and down to our happy shop. The annual collection of the prints will also be sold as boxed portfolios, containing a print from each artist. Watch for the official announcement soon. The above picture is a few of the images Jason's variant edition will contain. With ink on some of Jason's prints still wet, he had to sign them while they were still drying on the wall! Sue, Jason, and Julia, weary but happy after two weeks of nonstop crazy printing!
Please contact the shop to see images of Jason's work. They will be available to view and for sale on the Oehme Graphics website shortly. At the end of the month we will host our first monotype workshop, and then Ken Buhler comes in March! In the meantime we will be getting our site up and running. Prints from Oehme Graphics Collection, which contains prints from over a hundred artists, will be available for sale, as will all the work from the projects of Jeffrey Keith, Susan Hambleton, and Jason Rohlf. We can't wait to get all this amazing work up on the site and share it with you all! Jason came to Oehme Graphics last Sunday, and with his collagraphs sent from Brooklyn a few days prior to the start of the project, we were able to start printing immediately. Monday felt like we had already been at it a week--by the end of the day, the walls were covered with test prints. After experimenting with how the plates printed on Monday, Jason made decisions concerning color and how to utilize the inks to bring out the modulation and subtitles in the collagraphs. He realized that watercolor, rather that oil based ink, would be the initial ingredient for setting off the details and water-like scallop shapes in the plates. The textures and depths that the collagraph plates reveal in the prints are visually stunning. Some sections of the pieces have a three dimensional quality, and look as though parts are bursting off the paper, while other areas seem to continue back infinitely into space. This tension, along with the addition of Jason's serene color choices, make it difficult to stop gazing at his intricate prints. Jason was simultaneously working on pieces of vellum to convert into solar plates. He used ink, pieces of tape, and lots of time carefully cutting out shapes to create tonal shifts in the image. The strong Colorado sun was helpful this week, as it picked up all the tiny details Jason worked to distinguish. On Sunday, a day off for us at Oehme Graphics, Jason and Julia and Julia's friend who came for a visit, Abby Hoeschler, went "extreme" snowshoeing at Fish Creek Falls. It couldn't have been a more temperate or beautiful day for it. In the picture above Jason is being extreme (obviously) and climbing to get a better look at the amazing frozen waterfall. The color matched perfectly with the ink color he has been choosing for some of his prints. It has now been dubbed "Fish Creek Falls Green." It is also impossible to ignore the icy quality in this piece; it was inspiring and surprising to see correlations and premonitions between the snowy climate and Jason's pieces. (This monoprint was made before the snowshoe adventure!) Check back soon to see completed pictures of Jason Rohlf's work and hear more about shop news.
Have a great week! After an intense seven straight days of printmaking craziness, Susan completed a total of sixty-two pieces--a pretty incredible feat for all involved! Momentum started building on Monday morning of the 3rd, and then never slowed down. Partly due to Susan's delayed arrival to Oehme Graphics (thus having only seven days of printing time), Sue decided to revisit some unfinished oil monotypes in her flat files that Susan had printed in New York fifteen years ago with printer John Micoff. They were perfect starting points for Susan's collages; she would precisely poisiton the acetate images on top of the prints and then they were torn down to unique sizes, completely altering their original form. It was thrilling and satisfying to be able to use these images from the past, and to see the work come full circle as this is Sue and Susan's eleventh project together! Susan would arrange and decide on her collage pieces at a nonstop rate, leaving Sue with stacks of prints on which to adhere acetate and tear down to size, and Julia hardly leaving her post at our finicky (digital) printer's side! Susan Hambleton, with her sparkling wit and caring heart was so fun to work with. Both Sue and Julia were sad to see her leave...but her beautiful prints and spirit remain! If you would like to see a complete set of Ms. Hambleton's work, please send an email to Sue at [email protected], or call the shop at: 970.870.6609. They will be up on the website for viewing shortly! (We promise)
Stay tuned for updates from our next project with Jason Rohlf! The huge storm that hit New York prevented Susan Hambleton from getting in on the 28th, so finally, on the 1st day of the New Year, she made it into Steamboat! Since the project has been cut a little short, Sue of course has been "cracking her whip!" (as Susan likes to tease) and we have all been working steadily since her arrival. Susan has been working on a series using watercolor and oil monotypes and adding elements with collage. It is fascinating to watch her decision-making process as she plucks, cuts, and arranges the perfect pieces from a large assortment of various images (on public domain) that she researched and located at the New York Public Library. The pieces are photocopies which we then digitally printed onto acetate sheets, making them transparent and perfect for layering over her monotype prints. The dialogue that emerges between these collage pieces and their hand-painted monotyped environs are what makes this work so intriguing and beautiful.
Yesterday Oehme Graphics entertained two lovely ladies for lunch and print presentations at the shop. First, Kimberly Saari, the owner and director of the K. Saari Gallery in Steamboat Springs stopped by to see what we had worked on with Jeffrey Keith. Pulling out all the prints again, (there are 86 prints along with 1 edition) we were reminded of the diversity of the body of work, but struck by the compelling cohesiveness that Jeffrey expresses through his mark-making language. Later that afternoon, Katie Kiefer of West Elevation Architecture came over to look at the collection for some of her clients. We sorted some of the 18 x 18 inch monotypes into triptychs, and it was amazing to see how well they worked together even though each print was made individually. Here are some images of the arrangements we came up with: All the images from Jeffrey Keith's project will be available to view on the Oehme Graphics website shortly. He worked on sizes ranging from 11 x 11 inches up to 22 x 33 inches , with most of the individual pieces at 18 x 18 inches. If you would like to see any of the work immediately, please contact Sue at [email protected], or call the shop: (970) 870-6609.
Susan Hambleton just arrived from New York today, and we will be getting right to work! Check back soon for updates about her project, and have a great New Year! Yes, we will be working all weekend!!! |