The Lab PDX: Invitation To Draw With Me!

 Collaboration:

My very first typewriter drawing was made up of 158 five-inch squares. Though I remain fond of using a grid, it's been about two years since I've worked this large, and I'm so excited to have the opportunity to share this process with the public on Thursday, July 28th, at Holocene during The Lab PDX! This one-night-only curated evening of creative expression features an exciting array of visual art, performance and music.

I will be using the above image, a lion statue I fell in love with on a recent trip to Seattle, along with several manual typewriters and YOU to replicate this as a large scale drawing made up of multiple squares to be completed, installed, and shared during this one night only event.  Though I typically use my machine to explore and convey the wild undulations of value, and this image certainly presents a wonderland of shading and line, I want to play with the many different ways marks can be made or images can be recreated. Despite the control/obsession inherent in my own practice, I do enjoy the variety and freedom in the act of drawing and am really excited to unleash others' ways of depicting what they see and/or how they use the machine to make an image! I am so pleased that the egalitarian nature of printmaking is finally making its way into my practice--which often feels so isolating and self-centered.

Typewriter-drawing tutorial/collabo with some of my favorite ladies during the Portland Correspondence Co-Op (PDXCC) meeting--it's every 3rd Tuesday at IPRC and it's FREE! 

I will be borrowing several typewriters courtesy of typewriter-enthusiast/expert Ethan of Ace Typewriter & Machine. He's offered three adorable portables: A Hermes 3000, an Olympia and a Lettera 32!

I can't wait to draw with you--get your tickets here--they're only $8 if you get them advanced!

Event Details:

I'm thrilled by the list of incredible folks involved in making this event spectacular, but I'm super-delighted to finally share the stage, so to speak, with my talented cousin Lorna Dune who will be performing some new dark motorik experimental dance! 

Here are just some of the other talented folks/groups involved: Adam and Rosalynn Rothstein, Megan McKissack, Sue & Shawn, Jenn Steigerwald, Sleeping Wolf, and The Pearls. 

Tickets are $8 in advance or $10 at the door.
Buy tickets here or get mored deets/stay tuned/RSVP here!

Sign-Up To Draw:

Since this drawing is quite an undertaking, I will have a substantial amount completed beforehand so that we can install and finish it during the event! It will be helpful to know who/how many folks wish to be involved, so if you are interested, please email me: redlumlehcar at gmail dot com (It's just my full name backwards).

Looking forward to the future!

Who Were You, Who You Were - Gratitude!

Though it was a short trip, I had a great time in Wisconsin and was so grateful to have spent time with a handful of wonderful people I love and adore.

Café Lulu is always my first stop in MKE, and as always, I'm so delighted to see my extended/chosen Lulu family. Again, I'm so thrilled to show my work in a space that means so much to me and is filled to the brim with people I care about.  Thank you for still making perfect rhubarb pie, and special thanks to the bartenders for maintaining my bloody mary intake and helping us with the install.

Check out Ash's fabulous learning kits for the young'uns: Little Goat Learning

I'm extremely grateful to my dear pal Ash who helped me install (twice...we hung it too low the first time) and for my dad who helped on the second install.  What on Earth would I have done without you both? Another special thanks to Anna & Bill (and Theo) and Jessica for being great and wonderful sleepover hosts.

Installation view

A special message to Rina, Waldek, Leslie and Lynn: I can't express enough how grateful I am for your attending my opening reception.  You have had a powerful influence on what I do today, as you introduced me to printmaking itself through intaglio, drawing, book arts, color theory, and lithography. Thank you for still being a part of my life and for your kind words and advice.  I'm glad to know you.

I'm just astonished by all of the incredible people in my life who continue to support me and therefore my art. I'm forever in your debt and I love you.

The three achromats in this show, made using permanent marker and a slow build of hand-drawing triangles, the center one accompanied by rubbing alcohol.

If you were unable to make it to the reception, the show runs through mid-July, 2016.  Please see Café Lulu's site for hours, menu, and more information.  If you are interested in purchasing any of these pieces, please contact me directly: redlumlehcar at gmail dot com

Until next time, Milwaukee!

OPENING RECEPTION: Who Were You, Who You Were

work in progress, accumulative hand-drawn triangles in sharpie on paper, 30 x 44 inches

Please enjoy a few snaps of my latest pieces that will be on view April 15 - July 15, 2016 at Café LuLu in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  An epicenter of badass broads (and gents) whom I consider family, I'm super-thrilled to share my most personal work to date in this space.

detail while in progress, Who Were You, Who You Were, repetitive hand-carved diamonds and archival ink stamped on paper, 30 x 31.5 inches, SOLD

My Milwaukee Babes, please come celebrate with me on Friday, April 15, during Bayview Gallery Night--I'll be basking in your presence from 5 - 9pm (at least).  Can't wait to steal a quick visit home. I'm excited to see you.

Detail Who Were You, Who You Were

Like I've said this work is very personal, and though I've been afforded the privilege, and very much enjoy, hiding behind the processes I employ, I may eventually have to refer to the narrative in this work. Not today, though!

Until Soon. Hope you have a fabulous day.

Detail of work in progress Darts, Heels, Pantyhose, 30 x 37 inches, $800

Your Shadow's Shadow, 30 x 40 inches, $650

Artist Of The Month @ Darling Press

Please join us at the Darling Press Studio on first Friday, February 5th from 7-10pm--just two weeks away--to celebrate my latest typewriter drawings on view for the month. We can nerd out about beautiful old machinery while surrounded by it.

Stay tuned for more details on the Facebook invite page!

Hope to see you there!

So Long, Chromaphobia

I've spent nearly a decade with an aversion to using color. This stemmed from my initial love for etching and aquatint--what's the point of introducing color when you can play endlessly with undulating values?!--as well as a fear and lack of understanding color itself and how to use it.

I've discussed my fear of painting with many friends. The biggest drawback to me is that there are too many variables (brushes, marks, materials, translucency, etc) and then on top of it, color and all of its endless avenues.  As my friend Keegan pointed out, I enjoy being able to make a mistake--hence using the typewriter, etching an image in steel, or using permanent marker and rubbing alcohol to make a drawing. I enjoy using tools which provide some kind of limitation. Light masochism? Cowardice?

Anyway, for the last few months, while actively in a frenzy of high contrast black and white portraiture, I have spent a lot of time passively staring at, thinking about, and appreciating color, as a voyeur. I contemplate the subtle yet overwhelming effects of light on a beige wall alongside the dazzling appearance of vivid colors in nature, ordinary human-made objects, photography, and painting. I have spent a lot of time building imaginary palettes, wondering how things were created, considering the changes in house exteriors I see on my daily routes while illuminating light upon surfaces paired with the sky in the background alters the same view so drastically.

Precious Cargo, in progress
typewritten blue and red ink on Rives BFK

Now that I have finally shrugged off the fear of using color, I'm taking steps to using it directly--and it is mind-bendingly exciting.  Even just pairing two colors--knowing that blue and red make purple because I'm a 30 year old person with rods and cones--is a thrill to watch, and maybe more so because I'm watching it change as it moves through the typewriter.

I'm super excited to use this decade to further consider and actively use color.  I remember an instance pointing to my color-use-paralysis in litho class my sophomore year of college, with Lynn Tomaszewski.  We were doing two- to three-plate printing, and while my other classmates were playing with the overlap of various colors and values and how that affected different areas of an image, I was resigned to using an fiery red, shapes of color without texture or changes in value under a black plate which held all of the outlining visual information. The same went for my color work in screen-printing and intaglio, too. I am still working through this--in Dominic In Blue, it's hardly an exercise in color use, but it's a fun monochromatic study--a focus on using different tools (I used only "/" for the flesh).  And I just drool over that cerulean ribbon!

Dominic In Blue, 2016
typewritten blue ink on Rives BFK
8 x 10 inches

I am looking forward to escaping this paralysis, this rigid thinking I have with color.  The typewriter, since it naturally provides limitations (in mark-making, width allowance, material), is actually helpful in allowing me to hand myself over to color.  By providing these limitations, it allows me to be more flexible and carefree within the realm of color.  While color choice is still limited--there aren't endless ribbon colors like there are tubes of paint, but as we all know from living in a world covered in CMYK-printed things, I still have a pretty free range. Plus I recently learned that Ace Typewriter has pink and green ribbons in addition to the blue and purple that I've already added to my chromatic collection!

This rigidity is still present in my first attempt at creating a four-color CMYK typewriter-drawing.  I separated the layers of a color photograph in Photoshop and had each layer printed so that I could copy the predetermined colors exactly.  Being that I haven't yet located a yellow ribbon, I have substituted the use of Saral yellow transfer paper secured to the Rives BFK and running it through with the photocopy secured on top and typing over all three layers, doing the Y-layer blind, so to speak.

Self Portrait, in-progress 4-color typewritten ink and 

I plan to continue working in a way using the CMYK process, but instead of relying on the predetermined layers given to me, trying to use my own brain to imagine how hard/soft or dense/loose to apply each layer.  Though I bought this book years ago, I'm currently reading Island of The Colorblind by one of my favorite authors, self-proclaimed neuro-anthropologist Oliver Sacks (RIP). I recognize my privilege in being able to see and appreciate color.  In the book, he discusses his friend and colleague, Knut, an achromatope, "who has never seen color...has experienced only the positivity of vision, and has built up a world of beauty and order and meaning on the basis of what he has." I am excited to navigate this new personal appreciation and bask in the magic of color.  Now go read the book.

Top-Heavy, 2016
collaged typewritten purple and red ink on paper
10 x 13 inches

The last thing--I look forward immensely to exhibiting my latest typewriter-drawings (some in color) at my upcoming shows this February: first a solo exhibition at Darling Press (endless gratitude to Nele and Jen for connecting us and making this show happen!) and several pieces will be featured in a drawing show curated by Robert Tomlinson at the Western Oregon University. More details to come...stay tuned!

Mostly Drawings Of Women - Solo Exhibition at 77 Salon

I'm so pleased to announce that my final exhibition of this year will showcase the various media I've been working with since 2014.

Please celebrate the closure of this beautifully wild year with me on First Thursday, November 5 from 7-9pm! You can RSVP and stay tuned for more details on Facebook.

Mostly Drawings Of Women
on view November 2 - 29

77 Salon
1100 NW Glisan Street
Portland, OR 97209

Opening Reception
First Thursday
November 5
7-9pm

 

Additional hours:
M-F 10am-8pm
SAT 9am-6pm
SUN closed

Streetside At Blackfish

First Thursday Shot, by Keith Milgaten
Stephanie And Hunter, 2015
typewritten ink on paper, 28 x 34 inches

I'm so excited to focus on wrapping up my projects for what has been a delightfully wild and productive year.  I'm currently working on a bunch of holiday-deadline commissions and wrapping up all my loose ends for my final show in November--details coming soon.  In the meantime, check out my latest typewriter drawing on view at Blackfish Gallery in The Pearl District.  You can see it at any time of day, so go at midnight. Stephanie And Hunter will be on view through October 31.

October Is Typewriter Month!

And I had no idea--this is what being productive in the studio for six consecutive shows leads to: being totally out of touch with what's happening outside of yourself.

Patsy, 2015
 typewritten ink on paper, 6 5/8 x 13 3/8 inches
SOLD

I'm super grateful to Nico Courtelis and Chloe Eudaly (proprietress of Reading Frenzy and co-founder of the IPRC) were kind enough to clue me in to the excitement that is Typewriter Month in our fair city. All the hubbub is co-sponsored by IPRC and Design Week Portland with typewriter aficionado and publisher/editor/designer of Uppercase Magazine Janine Vangool gracing us with her presence with a release and presentation of her new book, The Typewriter: A Graphic History Of The Beloved Machine.  She has all the details/itinerary here.

I unfortunately* won't be available to attend this year's soiree, but it's on my calendar for next year. Should you be available, please attend and tell me all about it and/or let me live vicariously through your Instagram.

If you are feeling especially generous, you can feel free to tell people to go to Blackfish Gallery to see my latest typewriter drawing AND to Radish Underground to see my very first humongous monster of a typewriter drawing--both on view currently!

In other news, I finally scanned the pieces I had on view at Luke's Frame Shop last month--enjoy! Endless thanks to everyone who came out to both recent openings--what a blast!

Erica, 2015
typewritten ink on paper, 8 x 9 1/4 inches
 $200

Kierre, 2015
 typewritten ink on paper, 16 1/4 x 11 1/2 inches
$250

Self Portrait II, 2015
typewritten ink on paper, 7 x 12 inches
SOLD

Thom, 2015
typewritten ink on paper, 14 5/8 inches x 9 15/16 inches  
$250

*It's actually quite fortunate because I get to watch two people I love and adore, Robbie and Katharine, marry each other!

First Thursday - Blackfish Gallery

Next week catch my latest large-scale typewriter drawing Stephanie And Hunter on view in Blackfish Gallery's Fishbowl II. Celebrate all the fresh new work on view on First Thursday, October 1 from 6-9pm.

These drawings are made using my Sears' Citation II Manual Typewriter. By adding layer upon layer of typewritten ink and multiple feeds through the typewriter, it is a slow build of marks and value like sediment collecting, until the image is complete. 

Blackfish Gallery

Fishbowl II

420 NW 9th Ave

Portland, OR 97209

503.224.2634

Regular hours: Tuesday-Saturday 11am-5pm

Unrevealed @ Luke's Frame Shop

My latest typewriter drawings are now on view from today through September 29 at Luke's Frame Shop. I'm so excited to finally see them vertically on a white wall. Endless gratitude to the always kind and helpful staff at Luke's.

ThomErica, accidental/temporary found collage in flatfile drawer--each separate and on view at Luke's Frame Shop September 3 - 29, 2015. Typewritten ink on paper.

I'm thrilled to celebrate the show during the reception on Saturday, September 12.  We will be there from 6-8pm and there will be snacks and refreshments to numb all of our emotions. See more details and RSVP to the event on Facebook here. Until Soon!

Typewriter Drawing: Process

I forget that perhaps my process isn't as clear to others at it is to me.  Using my Sears Citation II manual typewriter, I use various symbols on paper repeatedly to create shifts in value and texture. My current series Unrevealed is a collection of such portraits based on photographs where the subject is obscured by light/shadow, perspective/foreshortening, or cropping.

studio view/in progress, Patsy, 2015
image made using: & % " # '

in progress detail, Erica, 2015

I typically pull the pin on the platen out, disengaging the roller so that I don't have to abide by the mechanical shift to the next line.  This way, especially if I'm working towards a rich black, I have more control and can more thoughtfully layer characters on top of one another.

studio view/in progress, Erica, 2015
image made using: o ' # % "

I discovered that # is my favorite symbol for skin since its natural appearance of crosshatching makes for an even balance in shading.  It covers a lot of surface area and is my main character for making pure black.  It resemble a mezzotint, but I can't decide which process of the two is more masochistic. % is a very effective symbol for hair.  The linear quality of the / in the % helps it illustrate the direction of the hair, but the little circles keep it from becoming cartoonish, and lend a softness to it which makes it look more believable.

Patsy, 2015
typewriter drawing on Rives BFK

This collection will be on view at Luke's Frame Shop in Portland, Oregon this Septmber!