Racor switch

 I sketched this endearing personage on a walk today. Subsequently learned that it is a Racor switch.

Power plant

 I've done this power plant a few times looking south from a ways up the river, but yesterday I found myself right opposite it, and did this watercolor sketch.

Mount Toby

 A nice in just spring day so I biked up to Mount Pollux and did this watercolor sketch of Mount Toby.

PCC Memories etching

I think this is the final state for the plate. Not that it couldn't be improved, but there are flaws that have been baked in from its inception and that will likely get worse with each trip through the ferric chloride. I've also done a lot of scraping and burnishing and filled some unintentional pock marks with epoxy. Next step is to work on the printing part - using inking, wiping, and printing to get a consistent, predictable result so as to be able to print an edition. I've learned a lot from this first attempt at a larger scale, complex image which I'll apply to the next one.

Moon, mountains, humans

We went up north to see the eclipse! I got a decent-ish shot of the totality by holding a phone camera filter (which didn't work with my admittedly old phone) up in front of my real camera. While waiting, I did a watercolor sketch of the mountains and some vignettes of my fellow humans gathering for the event. 

MICAfest 2024

M/others Institute for Collaboration and Art presents MICAfest 2024

MICAfest 2024 Art for Change: The M/others’ View

Visual/Performing/Literary Arts

I’m a Featured Artist!

80 m/other artists

May 1-31, 2024

Northampton, MA

Tickets for MICAfest are now open!

experiencemica.org/micafest-2024-northampton-ma/

My pieces, Three Women and Sunscreen, will be on display at Bombyx  Center for Arts & Equity in the Peacock Room.

Abandoned golf course

 Took the bike out to the abandoned golf course, which was partly flooded from recent rains, and did this sketch of ex-farm buildings, subsequently repurposed by a landscaping company. Actually the golf course is also in the process of being repurposed as a recreational area/solar farm, so may lose its wild and melancholy aspect.

Pen, inkwash, white gouache and white Sakura Gellyroll pen on toned paper.

4" x 6"

Hydrometer!

I recently invested in a hydrometer, which measures the density of a liquid relative to water. In etching, it is used to measure the ratio of water to ferric chloride in the etching solution, in degrees Baumé, or Be. Counterintuitively, the relationship is not simply one of more water diluting the strength of the solution; instead there is a useful range centered around 35˚Be, tailing off in either direction. The ferric chloride I buy comes as 42˚ Be, which is recommended for a “careful etch,” but other products I use were recommending 34˚, so I decided to adjust the Baumé with the hydrometer as a guide.  

. 

The hydrometer is basically a closed glass tube, weighted at on end with what looks like birdshot and glue, with calibrations on a paper roll inside the tube.

Floated in plain water, it reads 0.

 In the ferric chloride out of the jug, it reads 42. 

I gradually diluted the solution by removing ferric chloride with a turkey baster and replacing it with water 

until it read 34.

Finally, I wanted to determine the Baumé of the solution I had removed, which had become slightly diluted in the process, and got about 41.

PCC Memories etched with 34˚ Be ferric chloride.

I don't know how much it will show up here, but it made a noticeable difference to etch with 34˚ Be ferric chloride - the lines I added were darker and sharper.

Rin will be on display at the 3rd Celebrating the Figure show at Artworks Gallery in Ware MA.

April 6th through April 28th, 2024

Saturdays and Sundays 1:00-5:00 PM

Opening Reception  Saturday, April 6 3 to 5 pm

Artworks Gallery

69 Main St.

Ware, MA 01082

 

MICAfest Art for Change: The M/others’ View

 "Three Women" and "Sunscreen" have been accepted to MICAfest Art for Change: The M/others’ View, a Visual/Performing/Literary Arts Festival coming to Northampton, MA in May. It will feature performances and visual art displays exploring non-traditional definitions and narratives of "m/otherhood," and will go on throughout the month of May at various venues to be announced.

https://experiencemica.org/

MICAFest will take in place in multiple venues around Northampton. My work will be at the Bombyx Center for Arts & Equity in the Peacock Room
I'll post more details as they become available.

PCC Memories - etching work in progress

This is the first proof I've gotten that looked decent enough to post. I've been tweaking the variables of the process - prepping the plate, applying the ground, inscribing the drawing, etching, inking, wiping, preparing the paper, and printing. Still pretty far from having a reliable procedure but starting to narrow it down. I'm using non-toxic, or at least less toxic materials - BIG Etching Ground, Akua ink, SoySolve, etc. I started out with a sandpaper aquatint, in which a hard ground is applied before running the plate through the press a few times with a sheet of sandpaper, then etched. I successively stopped out selected areas and re-etched to create a range of values, then did the lines and hatching as several separate states. Those dark black marks are deep holes that crept in during the first etch. I've tried scraping and burning them but that only seems to lighten the surrounding area making them stand out more. I'm wondering if they could be filled in with epoxy or something?

Mother Comforted by Child

Another recent pencil drawing that might become an etching. I've been struck in the past by scenes of upset parents consoled by children (including me by mine) in various places, and done sketches. I was surprised as this one from imagination started to take shape with such a dark Kollwitzian vibe, but then the child seemed to be channeling a more cheerful Cassatt energy, so we have a yinyang dialectic thing going on. I don't know what the water signifies.

PCC Memories

 The latest version of the trolley picture, which I'm currently calling "PCC Memories," in honor of the old Boston streetcars. The most drastic change is the cropping of an inch on the left side, which I think is an improvement, but not one that I arrived at for artistic reasons. I have been considering this to be a design for an etching, and the earlier version was 11" x 7", which I had thought to be near the limit I could fit in my DIY vertical etching tank. Only after I had sized the plate using an experimental technique using my table saw to cut and bevel it on one pass, and followed with some filing and buffing, did I realize that my tank could actually only accommodate a 10" plate. After some consideration I ended up cutting both the drawing and the plate down to size, and I don't miss any of that stuff on left side at all. And the table saw technique worked well, making it a lot less onerous to have to redo the cut.

First snowstorm, first snowstorm painting

This was done using a mixture of magnetite, chalk, and home-brewed linseed oil as an underpainting. It's good for that purpose because it dries quickly and has a nice feel, somewhere between charcoal and sumi ink. I was trying to primarily catch the movement of the snow and letting the static structures fall into place as the picture developed. , and a video of me in the act

My paintbox sheltered by Artistic In Tent