Over the past two or three weeks, we've been experimenting with printmaking techniques and incorporating them into our large painting (and an update on that project is coming soon!).

Rosie wrote in a previous post about how we came up with images for our linoleum block prints. After deciding on our final images, we redrew them onto the blocks with pencil or marker. Then, using Speedball linocutters, we carefully carved and gouged around those areas we wanted to show up as blocks of color. Linoleum block printing is a relief process, meaning that the topmost surface takes the ink, like a rubber stamp. Even thin lines had to be created with two or more cuts, since we had to cut around the line! (Think about that next time you see a delicate Japanese woodcut! They were done in the same way.)

Typically, a block print is taken by laying a piece of paper on top of the block and rubbing with a spoon, baren, or other smooth and slightly rounded tool until the ink transfers from the block to the paper. However, we printed our blocks like stamps because we were using heavy brown craft paper, which is too thick to accept a dense transfer of ink with a baren. Our stamping worked pretty well!
Next we attempted silkscreen printing, which utilizes a totally different process to create reproducible images. A silkscreen consists of a frame and a porous, though tightly woven, silk screen. Using both tape and contact paper (though screen filler and photo emulsion are more typical artist's tools), we made stencils by masking off areas of the screen. By applying ink and pushing it through the open parts of the screen with a rubber squeegee, we got our prints!

And then we had to clean up...

(This includes everything in the week prior to the pit painting party on Monday, July 6. So, here's a glimpse of all of the other things we do!)

Monday
On Monday we started off on a normal project of sketching outdoors. Each artist found an item from nature and was told to sketch it for a print. The prints later were carved out of linoleum after being sketched on to the surface. After eating a fulfilling lunch we went back outside to sketch near the construction site on campus. We found patterns in the cranes and machinery. We used this later in an industrial pattern print (above). For the rest of Monday we used the patterns on our soon-to-be masterpiece, the big painting.

Tuesday
Tuesday was a similar day to Monday, but days at Blue Sky always expand our creativity. In the morning we worked on a group project that doesn’t involve Katherine. Over the weekend we let a canvas dry that we splattered paint on the week before. Using pastels most of the group worked on drawing their favorite animal while another part of the group worked on our group masterpiece. This was to prevent too much crowding at either painting.

Wednesday
With Rodney's group, we made our way to ArtStreet. There we met four different artists.

• Adam, a graphic designer, was completing a project for the dorms at the University of Dayton. His project is on canvas and represents the native creatures in the Dayton area.


• Hillary is creating mobiles and sculptures from recycled items from the local area.


• Sarah is also doing a project for the UD dorms. Her project was abstract paintings of books. One of her examples was of a schoolbook for freshman college students--pages were torn out and plastered and spackled to the canvas.


• The last artist we spoke to, Liz, is working on art for the Learning Teaching Center in the UD library. She has created images of groups of people to point the students in the right direction of different rooms.

Thursday
On Thursday the Purple Picassos worked once again with Rodney’s group for the last choreographing practice. This practice we were told to be enthusiastic and get into the music. Adding dance moves to the paint choreography really helped us be more enthusiastic! Before lunch, we worked a bit more on choreographing the paint throwing by tossing actual cups of water to the pavement (that's one of Rodney's dancers to the left) so that we could practice our throwing technique.

After using so much energy outside and replenishing with lunch our two groups went back to the Rike building to be shown a video, “The Passing” by Bill Viola. The short film was about movement and picture with the meanings of life, growth and death. After the film we then divided into our respective groups to work more on our projects. While alone, braver members of the groups admitted to dozing off or out right falling asleep during the film, while others who caught most of the movie were eager to talk about it.

After some down time all groups reported to a far off building across campus to watch the presentation of Lisa’s lovely group. They talked about their small flash animation projects including one using the chalk board. They also documented the paint drop in the pit. In the end we let some paper airplanes fly and departed to have a relaxing weekend. The Purple Picassos shall return soon to fill another blog space!

-Rosie

Well, here we are again! Remember that particularly conspicuous day when Lisa, Rodney, and Katherine, along with their Student Artists and Youth Participants, trekked the journey to the Excelsior Building and had some good old-fashioned paint-flinging and dancing fun? Remember the pictures of our endeavors--the dancers looking fit for a boy band in their matching jumpsuits, goggles and bandannas, the pit filled with watered-down pastel paint? We had so much fun throwing paint on poor, helpless children in a pit that--gasp!--we decided to do it again!

Throughout the week after the first paint job, Rodney invited our group over to his dance hall to plot our second installment of this classic activity. The Dancers and the Painters banded together to throw paint upon Rodney and another dancer--equipped with brilliant hues of paint!--with a twist. The last time we got to pelt people with paint, we threw paint any way and at any time we could. The easiest way to say it was that we had absolutely no organization. But we loved it, and we reached our goal (to paint the Pit of Doom and some dancers at the same time).

The difference with the second installment is that Rodney specifically choreographed how, when, and the amount of paint that we would throw. Divided into groups, the area from which the paint was thrown and who threw it was choreographed to match with the music. We would throw paint in groups, in cannon, as a solo--however it may work with the music. Rodney had a member of the Dance group call the commands, and we followed them. Even the paint itself matched the music!

As the tango music began, light blue paint in smaller amounts was thrown into the Pit of Doom. Once we rotated the groups' placement, pink paint was thrown with a little more gusto. And once the haphazard, crazy ending began, violet paint was thrown into the Pit, and ended as abruptly as it started.

On Monday, we threw the colorful paint after the scheduled time for Blue Sky--from 4:00 to 5:00. Given that word had spread about the Pit of Doom Part One, the public was very interested! Guests were invited to come join us and watch the process of the thrown paint and the dancers below. After a couple of runs without the paint, it was showtime. Sadly, Rodney's dance partner was not able to make it, so Rodney instead performed a solo in the Pit of Doom. Altogether, it turned out very well, and after two runs with paint and us on the first floor and the guests in the basement, they were invited to go the top of the Pit and peer down at Rodney and us as we threw paint from the basement. This third run, though, we ran out of our lovely paint, so Rodney continued to mix the existing paint without us adding to the amount.

This second installment was a ton of fun to partake in, and if you were able to join us, I hope that you enjoyed it as much as we did. Be sure to join us for our final exhibition, as we have some wonderful plans in store for the paint inside and at the top of the Pit of Doom. Stay tuned for more updates!

We're in the process of changing blog templates in order to better serve our Internet Explorer visitors! The text display was just too horrendous, and I just couldn't figure out how to fix it in the style sheets.

On Monday, July 6 2009, the Purple Picassos and Rodney's dancers went back to the Excelsior to make yet another crazy idea explode from the bowels of our minds (editor's note: ew?). The first time we threw paint into the pit, we were disgraced by the terrible color choice and ended with a splatter most easily described as a TON of baby vomit! (editor's note: I prefer sherbet colors...more appetizing) We could have dealt with it, but we preferred to make another splatter instead.

In order for this to be successful we had to make some changes. This time we got blue, pink, and purple paint. Next we adjusted the throwing style. The first time we threw one at a time however we wanted. This time it was to be a true production where paint throwers are dancing with choreographed movements with the music. Lastly, Rodney and a female dancer were going to dance in the pit together. Unfortunately the female dancer had to work, so Rodney improvised.

The throwing was a success on two levels. Rodney got some killer footage unlike any other. Also, the painters got some great coverage and got rid of the terrible pit of baby vomit rainbow sherbet. There was only one problem -- the owner of the building saw the spots where paint spilled on the first floor and said, "Wow, this had better be used or go!"

So, we decided to incorporate these puddles of unwanted paint into our work. We are splitting into three groups to work on each puddle to make it our own. We will then make the designs fade into the puddle on the ground where they will end. We will use the columns and the wall to make interesting three-dimensional effects as the spatters meld into the floor design.

-Ray

Labels: paint, redux, the pit

Local teens partner with national artists

By Dave Larsen, Staff Writer

DAYTON — Katherine Mann is creating a wall-sized “abstract landscape” painting in collaboration with seven students from Dayton-area high schools.

“I never would have been able to create something like what’s up there right now from my own head,” said Mann, a painter from Baltimore, Md. “It had to come from all these other different voices having an equal partnership in creating this thing.”

Mann is producing the latest piece in her “Byzantine” series as part of the Blue Sky Project, an eight-week program that pairs five artists from across the U.S. with a total of 33 Dayton-area youth participants.

“The youth are really actively engaged, conceptually and creatively, in the art-making process,” said Blue Sky Project founder Peter Benkendorf.

::Read more here::

While we spend a lot of time creating patterns and doing drawing exercises to warm up our creative juices, I thought I'd write first about one of the most exciting parts of beginning a painting: the pour! If you've seen Katherine's work, you'll soon realize how coordinated and designed it truly is despite the randomness of the individual elements. Yet, she --and now us-- lets gravity and water do the initial heavy lifting.

First, we mix our desired colors and thin the acrylic paint with water. Then, we pour! Sometimes we splash, splotch, or splatter, and other times we toss, hurl, or dribble. Our movements create a moving field of color on the paper as the watery pigment pools or forms rivulets. The paper buckles into hills and valleys, and we've suddenly got a living landscape at our feet! We allow the paper to dry, which may take several days, and the unique geography of the paper creates the forms into which we work additional masses of color and pattern.





--Emily

Labels: paint, process

On June 24th, Lisa’s group, Rodney’s group, and our group went down to the loft to try a little experiment. Inside the loft, on the first floor is a giant hole that allows us to see down into the basement. The pit is about 20 feet and has no railing around it except for orange netting and a cable. Safety first, right? To get around this little dilemma, we had found a ladder with railing at the top. I bet you’re thinking, “Wait! Whoa? Why do you need ladders and giant pits for?” Well hold your horses, I’m about to tell you.

The Purple Picassos needed a place to throw their hideous colors of paint down into the Pit of Unfortunate Doom! And guess whose group had the pleasure of being in the Pit of Doom? Rodney’s group naturally! The lovely gentlemen in that group got to wear white jumpsuits, goggles, and red bandannas while they danced in the pit. We dumped baby vomit and sherbet ice cream colored paint (told you: hideous colors,) on them from above and embellished their boring jumpsuits.


Lisa and her wonderful group got to film the dancers busting their moves while we busted our paint on them. They got the less messy end of the bargain, but the Purple Picassos and the dancers were not so lucky. Of course when you’re equipped with rowdy artists, paint inside Super Soakers, and you’ve been throwing paint on other people for awhile, of course some one ends up screaming “paint fight.” Which is why your child probably came home with a mint-colored face and a pinkish-colored shirt that was once a dark blue.

Fortunately, everything went smoothly and no one was hurt. And the next day we got to view the footage and see the amazing still-in-progress stop-motion film Lisa’s group put together, and the actual recording. The few words we could all conjure up were interesting. And the splat noises made from the paint hitting the ground didn’t help the effect of baby vomit-colored paint. But all in all, it was a wonderful experience, with pretty satisfying results. And I believe it’s safe to say, we all had oodles of fun making the video.


Also, when the paint on the ground finally dries up, the Purple Picassos shall turn the fusion of paint into a masterpiece.

-Brandi

Labels: dancing, Excelsior, paint, the pit