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Level 3 Printmaking 2012

Printmaking in 3D

3.1 Analyse methods and ideas from established printmaking practice

Credits: 4

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Jim DineJim Dine is an expressionist artist born in Ohio in 1935. He then moved to New York when he was 23 to start his career seriously as an Artist. Critics have argued whether to call Dine an expressionist or pop artist. Dine is usually introduced as a pop artist because he uses everyday objects such as the robe and tools in his workshop in his work. Also because he was born in New York where the movement of Pop Art begun. However, his expressive mark making and portraits are well away from the typical sharp precise lines of Pop Art.

Jim Dines techniques in printmaking involve woodcuts, intaglio and other forms of etching such as spit-bite and soft ground, but he also works with lithographs, silkscreens and prints that combine two or three processes. Dines processes include creating a soft, atmospheric background texture (sometimes using paint or materials such as gesso) energized with etching and expressive marks (media used differs with each work, Oil based ink mostly for wood cuts and etching) that form the pictorial issue of movement throughout the work so that the eye can easily focus on the bold image and to avoid tension with in his work.

Methods

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Methods continued…Jim Dine also involves layering where images are printed over top of each other, such as this one to the right where the tree has been printed over top of the skeleton, which combines both images and forms its own idea with in the art work such as nature and death. The process of colour is thoroughly thought about with in Dines works as it conveys certain messages and he focuses on not making his work too busy. In the image to the right, the pale blue against the black forms the idea of a surreal dreamland which also creates contrast to stop the print from becoming to complicated. And Dine has made sure his background process was done with soft media such as acrylic to ensure the background isn’t too heavy against the etching printed overtop.

Youth and the maiden

InfluencesJim Dine is a true artist who is famous for being a printmaker, painter, sculptor and craftsmen and has no specific routine when it comes to his art as he is always trying something different. He has become one of the worlds well-known printmaking artists with his ‘dry’ expressive techniques in etching that combine depth within his work. Jim Dines art can be recognized also by the repeating of certain images such as the skulls, robes, hearts, tools, statues and gates. He is influenced by everyday life and everyday objects around him that have a certain necessity to him and are the most common used objects in life.

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IdeasJim Dine

Dine has many different ideas behind his work and he doesn’t tend to stick to a theme across all works. In print, he sometimes sticks to very expressive themes such as death, youth (using images such as skulls and skeletons) and also works with particular imagery like hearts to contrast themes. Images also seen in Dines work are the robe and tools in art workshops which are every day items giving an idea of the necessary objects in life that we take for granted but what we would be lost without.

Double Pacific Gift 1985 This is an example of one of Jim Dines prints. This work is a lithograph and linoleum . The lithograph plate was formed from an impression taken off the linoleum block making a mirrored affect. This print gives an idea of shellac on each hand and they come across as workers hands or even artists hands. Jim Dine hints that the title may suggest that he found an object on the shore of a pacific beach seeing as Jim Dine is known for working with objects.

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This is another one of Jim Dines prints, he has used a wood cut and spit-bite etching with use of black and red ink. Dine hinged two sheets together which gives that faint line in the middle of the print. He ran each sheet through twice, one with a red/black iron plate (spit-bite etching) and then over top with a black wood-block. The dancer figure has appeared in many of Jim Dines charcoal series ‘Red dancers on the western shore,’ in 1986. this figure comes from a Hellenistic bronze sculpture which Dine was influenced by in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Red Dancer on the Western Shore 1988

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SwoonCaledonia Currie, also known as ‘Swoon’ is an American Street artist born in 1978 in Florida who became well-known for her installations around 1999. She installs life size prints into environments and also is known for sculptures of rafts and boats, this is what makes her a 3D artist. Swoon installs her prints onto abandoned buildings, bridges, fire escapes, water towers and street signs which are usually uninhabited. Her work is always of people and places mostly of people she knows but of unique structures that’s she creates with in a print, that is how her work is usually recognized. Swoons work is never associated with graffiti as materials such as spray paint etc. are never used and the messages across her work is always different to that of graffiti. Swoon is a master of printmaking and works exceptionally well with negative and positive space to form simple shadows and movement within her prints.

These portraits are x-rays of my city plastered back upon its surface. Through the hundreds of holes that I cut into them, I am trying to interact with the walls beneath them."

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MethodsSwoons main technique in printmaking is woodcuts and paper stencils. This is when she usually installs her work on walls using very light wheat glue which is very thin and makes it easily pasted on. Her prints are usually printed on recycled newsprint which over-time decays and cracks leaving a old yellowish look. Swoons processes when pasting a print onto a wall is to let the rain and other extreme weather conditions to make it fit in with the other weathered posters and graffiti and give it that abandoned feel. Swoon creates

“external manifestation of internalized depths –thoughts, emotions and perceptions and echoes them with in memory or imaginations.”

Swoons work is all hand-made with use of printing presses, no computer is used. Her work includes lots of people and other organic shapes. Her techniques involve very rough dry detail which is formed by the woodcut etching tools. Places/Towns/cities are also formed but are usually formed inside the shape of a characters body.

Swoon

IdeasSwoon

At first glance, Swoons work seems more simple than it actually is. For example, to the right people may just see an old man. But viewers really have to study and have an eye for detail to realise that there are sometimes whole cities within the character, which gives a whole other meaning to the visual. She connects the external and internal visual together and tells a story through emotions, thoughts and perceptions. Critics say that Swoon somehow recalls personal memories within a persons body, certain experiences that relate to her prints. To the right, a viewer may see that man as there own grandfather.

“I’ve always really had the sense of the way that people store things inside their bodies and the way that everything you’ve ever seen or ever done is a part of you. I felt like in a way if I could somehow draw that, or make an x-ray, maybe it was just your experiences that day or maybe it’s just what you walked past that day, or maybe it’s a deeper story that’s somewhere in there for the telling.”

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InfluencesSwoon has travelled all around the world and each new place she goes or new culture she experiences influences her in every way, especially her art. It doesn’t matter whether its China, the Netherlands or America. Swoon is inspired by different historical art and also folk sources which varies from German expressionist wood block prints to Indonesian shadow puppets.

She is influenced by people and the way they live their life within environments, this is portrayed within her work. She tells there own story through her wood cuts, cut outs or sculptures. Swoon is also influenced by the buildings etc. she pastes her work on and it almost encourages her to make her prints fit into the buildings by making them seem old and cracked too.

The closest people in Swoons life that she claims also inspires her are her grandparents, which she has used in her prints often.

Swoon

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This is one of Swoons famous prints ‘Girl from Ranoon province’ where she has drawn this piece on a woodblock, then etched it out and printed it on fine wheat paper. Swoon has then pasted it on a wall with in her gallery instead of an abandoned building but has used a sort of gesso texture for the background and what seems to be brown graphic-like paper.

Swoon has also gone over her wood block with white acrylic to make the highlights of the girls face stand out and form the pictorial issue of contrast. Swoon has printed this image many times and also changes it each time slightly by adding more to her at the bottom. Swoon was influenced for this print by the energy, conflicts and joys of urban life which is seen with in the construction the girl rests on that is very clustered and busy similar to city life. The idea drawn from this is a girl with in an urban culture who isn’t happy, as she is shrugging and looking off into the distant.

The title doesn’t give much clue but it almost inspires the viewer to step in the girls shoes and imagine how she feels as there is so much emotion and detail within these prints such as the simple lines which form the city below her and the expression in her face.

Girl from Ranoon Province 2010

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This is another one of Swoons famous prints where she has printed these skeletons from two different wood cuts onto light wheat paper which has then cracked forming the textured lines with in the prints. Swoon has used a range of negative and positive space forming high contrast which helps the images to stand out.

The idea in these prints seem quite gruesome with the use of skeletons which come across as Swoon being influenced by poverty or some sort of death that comes as a message she is trying to get across. The head gear of both skeletons gives it a surreal affect where things may not be as they seem because they are so unusual and sort of ‘dress up’ items that were once used in historical times.

At each ends of the prints it looks as if the paper is ripping away at the skeletons and even though there is no actual movement, Its as is you can imagine the two skeletons fighting each other.

Name not found

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Nicola Lopez

“The landscape that we live in has become saturated with signs of the easy mobility, speed, constant communication, imposition of structure, insistence on growth and glorification of technology that have come to be so characteristic of our society today. My work incorporates these signs, exaggerating and reconfiguring them in order to build maps that convey the sense of wonder and vertigo that is inevitable as we face the landscape of today’s world.”

Nicola Lopez is a contemporary 3D printmaker born in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has now moved to New York where she teaches at Bard College. Her interest in describing todays landscapes comes from traveling to different countries and cultures and from her studies as an anthropology major at Columbia University. Her modern approach with in her art is recognized through the bright colours she uses that reflect historic and modern architecture. She also uses easily recognizable symbols such as the wheel, power plugs, satellites, square buildings.

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MethodsNicola Lopez

Nicolas main printing techniques that she uses are woodcuts and silkscreen on Mylar. Nicola installs her prints in galleries in huge clusters on walls and also hanging from the ceiling. She builds up her pieces by using both images and raw materials to add in a bit of the history of technology and the landscape. Nicolas process includes developing several individual images and then piecing them together with only a rough idea of the outcome. Her images come from drawings that are developed into silkscreens or photolithography plates and wood blocks which are then printed and used over and over again. These prints can range from human size to very small. Nicola also analyses each image and evaluates what idea the image portrays on its own and with the other prints. Whether the print is bold enough on its own or has a relationship with others. She also analyses whether the image should be repeated or not. Nicola gathers all of her plates and wood blocks and prints them onto paper or frosted Mylar (a strong bendy material that holds its shape). Her methods include cutting the images out and removing the negative space with an Exacto knife. Nicola then spreads her work on the floor carefully piecing a cluster.

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IdeasThe meanings behind Nicolas work bring the idea of instant communication by people in our society who are obsessed with being rich and wealthy, And also wanting the latest technology. Her main focus is the MODERN WORLD. This is shown through prints of satellites, skyscrapers, power lines, the wheel (start of technology) , roads and buildings, aeroplanes, machines and power plugs. Individually these symbols represents a piece of technology whether in the modern world or what has been forgotten or developed from the past. Coming together in a cluster which all connects the pieces together. Nicola also prints smoke that come out of her clusters to convey the idea of pollution from this technology. Her printmaking reflects the ‘industrial revolution.’ Nicola likes the get the idea of a visual map that ‘represents how the world is structured’ but not a realistic geographical map, which is why she uses large spaces – floor, wall and ceiling – in presenting her prints.

Nicola Lopez

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InfluencesNicola is interested in technology and the way it has dramatically changes over the years. Through her grandparents times or even before that to the way it is developing everyday towards our future. This change influences Nicola in wanting to show the world through her clusters and prints what the world looks like and that we are full of skyscrapers, electricity etc. and it is all in clusters affecting the world by giving off pollution. Lopez is also influenced by science-fiction and that certain perspective on things, looking at technology in a different way and from the science point of view and how it affects our planet.

Nicola Lopez

A promising tomorrow – 2004/05 This is one of Nicolas installations ‘A promising tomorrow’ which fits well with the imagery as it is of enhancing technology used and developed in every day life. She has created several prints on wood block and silkscreen on paper or Mylar.Nicola searches further into technology and looks at the world differently. She sees technology as a cluster, saying there is too much of it and we are going overboard. She likes to describe herself as designing maps which shoes how the world is structured – so in this case, a big messy jumble which everyone thinks is improving our world but is slowly ruining it.

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This second piece of Nicola’s work is also an installation, but it hangs from the ceiling and falls right to the floor which is a big amount of scale.

It forms a bland, sad look which fits well to the idea of technology and how it is dying out, some areas faster than others which is also a good reason for the range of blue. The strands of prints seem as if more technology is piling up into the clusters day by day and the background jumble looks as if its becoming overwhelmed with images. This seems like the scene where the world starts falling apart, giving a message as if to show the people what could happen, in a very surreal installation that also has 3D affect. The composition and layout of the clusters brings balance overall and helps the eye to flow easily around the installation.

Vertigo - 2005

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Similarities and DifferencesJim Dine

SwoonJim Dine and Swoon are very similar in the way they are expressive with their printmaking because they use etching processes such as woodcuts which gives a very rough imperfect line. Both artists also do not use any programmes on the computer for their work, it is all hand carved with use of a printing press. A process Swoon is famous for is installing her prints where as Dine does not do this, however he is known for 3D art when it comes to his sculptures. Both works have the figure of a girl and use the colour red within the background.

The ideas within each artwork is also fairly similar. In Swoons piece the girl is looking off into the distance as if to be unhappy with what she has in life and dreaming of some place else. In Jim Dines piece the figure of the woman dancing, looking down to the ground with the red in the background suggests she is unhappy also with her life as she struggles to make ends meat.. Similarly both Jim Dine and Swoon are influenced by poverty, despite as Jim Dine looking more at the gypsy provinces and Swoon more on the Urban Life of young girls/women.

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Similarities and DifferencesJim Dine Nicola Lopez

Jim Dine and Nicola Lopez similarly use printmaking processes such as woodcuts and other etching techniques which is the main similarity they have in common, but they both use these processes in completely different ways . Both use layering successfully in their work, Nicola Lopez develops individual prints and puts them together in a cluster, where as Jim Dine prints the images on top of each other. Lopez installs her prints onto walls/floors and ceilings in galleries where as Jim Dine does not. Differences in their work include the scale of their work, Nicola’s prints can individually reach human size and bigger where as Jim Dine prints are always smaller than that. Both artists have a different view on their art as Jim Dine is more expressive and free form where as Nicola appears more structured with simple clusters. Ideas and influences expressed in both artists work are also different as Nicola looks more into the industrial world with map forms where as Jim Dine focuses more the concept of death and youth.

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Similarities and DifferencesSwoon Nicola Lopez

Swoon and Nicola Lopez use similar printmaking processes such as woodcuts and also both tend to use cut outs within their work successfully. Both artists install their work but in completely different environments, Swoon installs her work outside cities/towns/installations on boats. where as Nicola installs her work onto walls/floors/ceilings in galleries.

Both artists use scale to their advantage, ranging up to human size and beyond which enhances their idea and makes it apart of the environment in swoons case and makes Lopez’s work seen as a visual map. The ideas within these art work are both different but make you think about ideas such as death, Nicola Lopez looks into the industrial world, how the world is mapped out and how it has changed over the years where as Lopez wants you to think about what is happening to the worlds biggest industries which is where the idea of our dying planet comes to mind. Swoons art is portraying death with the use of skeletons as Swoon being influenced by poverty and death addresses everyone's lives. Nicola is influenced by the Industrial world which is where she portrays a relationship between the digital and dying world.

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Bibliography• Installations and Experimental printmaking Alexia Tala A and C Publishers limited• Swoon By Abrams• Jim Dine Prints A Catalogue Raisonne Elozabeth Carpenter with an essay by Joseph Ruzicka

Published by the Minneapois Institute of Arts.• Jim Dine By Jean E Feinberg Published by Abbeville• Jim Dine – www.artinfo.com/news/story/16853/jim-dine/• Swoon - http://www.designboom.com/contemporary/swoon.html• Http://www.bitrebels.com/design/new-york-city-street-artist-swoon• Nicola Lopez – http://nicolalopez.com/