Meditation Number 100

It finally happened.

After two years and three months, the series of short talks on art that I called Meditations on Art has finally arrived at the original target of 100.

In addition to being a discussion of a painting by Shinique Smith, this one is also a short review of what I've learned after doing 100 videos, or three hours' worth of playing time, or 30,000 words of writing, and currently 97,000 views on YouTube.

One of the things I learned: the more you do it, the more people respond. After the first 50, the YouTube channel had only received a couple of thousand views. Now it seems to be getting 1,000 each week.

I also learned, as I said in the above talk, that far more of them than I realised are about white, male artists -- not intrinsically a bad thing, perhaps, but it certainly wasn't part of my original plan, which was to display, if only to myself, that I have a broad taste in art.

The story of where I got the title for the series from is here.

And now that I've got to 100, am I going to stop? Not at all. I intend to continue, without a set limit this time, and talk almost exclusively about living artists.

It seems like I have some catching up to do.

Restoring my Printing Press

I've just finished restoring and assembling my large etching press -- a six week process involving lots of rust removal, scrubbing with steel wool, and repainting. Here is a photo of the same kind of press from the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative: And here is a short YouTube video of me testing the press, making sure the motor still works after nearly seven years of lying in storage:

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Brancusi in Plastic

Artist Mary Ellen Croteau is showing these columns made from recycled plastic cartons and lids in the window of the Columbia College bookstore on Michigan Avenue. They are a playful homage to Brancusi's "Endless Columns", with a serious environmental message for our times: Image copyright Inhabitat.com and Mary Ellen Croteau Mary Ellen also runs a wonderful experimental art gallery in a window space in west Chicago, called Art on Armitage . I will be exhibiting a mixed media piece there during August 2012.

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How to etch a linoleum block

Linoleum as a material for printmaking has been used for nearly a hundred years now. Normally, you cut an image out using special gouges similar to woodcut tools, cutting away the lino around the image you want to print. This is called relief printmaking, because if you look at the block from the side, the material that remains stands up in relief from the backing material. You then roll ink with a brayer over the surface of the block, place paper over it, and either print by hand or run it through a press. You can do complex things this way (for example, reduction linocuts), but the beauty of the process is that it is quick, simple, and direct. Incised lino block, from me.redith.com Etched lino block, from Steve Edwards A few years ago, I saw some prints that were classified as coming from etched linoleum blocks, and I loved the textures I saw in them. In the last few months, I've been trying to use this technique in my own studio, learning about it as one does these d

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Praeterita

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