In The Studio

College Street Collage

2009-03-18T19:26:00.000-07:00

I haven't gotten to posting this until now, but here is the finished print for this year's HGS hanga exchange. It is a composite of a number of different buildings along College Street in Toronto.

Hanga Exchange 2009

2009-01-20T22:04:00.000-08:00

Here is a sneak peek at what I'm working on for this year's HGS Moku Hanga exchange in Takayama. I have carved the detail plate which is what is shown below. I have one fill plate that will provide a bit of color to the print. Other than that, I should be good to print soon!

Sunday Session

2009-01-04T21:58:00.001-08:00

Acquired a nice little piece of cherry wood and spent the day in the studio.... here's what came of it.

New Year Print 2009

2009-01-03T09:40:00.000-08:00

Year of the ox.

Recent Prints from 2008

2009-01-03T09:33:00.001-08:00

A couple prints from the last months of 2008. I've been using brushing inks onto the plate vs. rolling ink.

More Sessions

2008-03-15T14:21:00.000-07:00

A couple shots from the ongoing print sessions:

{-_-}

Print sessions

2008-03-08T17:05:00.000-08:00

I've been hard in it this past week. Printing is going well with a few minor issues with registration on the 3rd plate. By about the first 10 proofs I mangaged to get things running smoothly and that was that! Here are a few pics thus far:

2008 Hanga Show

2008-02-13T17:12:00.001-08:00

Its been quite a while since the last time I posted anything on here. But, a little time has passed, and I find myself at the same point where I left off last year........ the annual HGS print exchange in Takyama. This time around things are a little different though, I'm doing all of my work back in Canada. After returning from my year in Japan, I am now on the brink of returning for the show a mere 8 months later. I'll be posting more as things start to develop and take shape with my prints.

LAiNE

HGS Exchange

2007-04-12T10:25:00.000-07:00

I've finally finished and successfully exchanged my print for this year's HGS moku-hanga exchange in Takayama. It was a fantastic experience and after having taken part in this exchange I feel like I've grown in a number of ways as a print artist. This was the first exchange of this scale that I've taken part in, and I'm looking forward to continuing on to do more in the future. It was especially cool to be the first and only foreigner to part of this long standing group. My presence was even covered by one of the newspapers in Nagoya....... why me I don't know. I certainly wansn't the most skilled artist there....... maybe it was the red hair? >_<

here are a few snaps of the event, the article, and the print iteslf: (excuse the bad scan of the print...... my scanner is quite poor)

Living Room Studio

2007-03-19T23:27:00.000-07:00

Life has been incredibly busy in the sudio these days. Although it technically isn't a studio, and more so just my living room, it has been very active with an edition of prints I'm working on for the Takayama exchange coming up in 2 weeks. I have successfully printed my first 4 layers of color with only the last remaining. I'm currently in the middle of printing the final color and I am pretty happy with the results so far. Some areas could be be better...... small spots where registration has been lost, and a few spots where I haven't been able to get even inking and/or baren pressure. In the end, however, I think its only inevitalbe givin my rather beginner level and the sheer number in the edition. In total I have printed aproximately 140 prints (tests included), but in the end I am aiming to have a solid edition of 100 with the remaining as tests and artist proofs. Here are a couple snaps from the psudo-studio that I've been dabbling in!

Feb 17.07 -> Quick Update

2007-02-16T16:14:00.001-08:00

Just a quick update from the studio........... for the last week and a half I've been working hard on my hanga for the Takayama exchange in early April. So far I've completed 3 of the 6 wood plates that I'll be doing for this particular print. Its presenting a few challenges, but for the most part everything is going well, and I'm really enjoying this project. The wood is much softer than the last wood I used, and there is much more detail in this particular design. I'm finding it difficult to keep every spec of detail, but as a whole I think that I'm doing pretty well. In the end, I think that any lost details will only add to the hand-made nature of this piece. Here are a scans of the plates in their various stages of completion........

Feb 1.07 -> Rough Days

2007-02-01T08:13:00.000-08:00

Its been a rough go the last week as I've been trying to get things together for my upcoming Takayama print exchange. I've been having real difficulty pinning down a design for my print, but finally reached something concrete today. Along the way I've scrapped 3 earlier designs to arrive at the design I have now. In anticipation of the upcoming sakura blossom season here in Japan I've themed my print around the colors and suggestions of cherry blossoms. It will be interesting to see how my print is received given the fact that I've never experienced a blossom season here in Japan, and only know it through imagery I've seen elsewhere. Its nice to finally have something together now, and I can put my current robot project aside for a little while and focus on this new print. Meanwhile, I've sent my tools in to the cutlery hall to get professionally sharpened before I start on my next project.

A side note........

here is a link to a few pics from the pottery studio and a shot of some of the pottery that I've been making here in Japan. We have a wonderful location to create pottery, and an even better sansei!!!

POTTERY

Jan 27.07 -> New Years Show

2007-01-27T21:22:00.000-08:00

To my suprise I found that my ino-shi-shi hanga for 2007 New Years has been put on show in Yamagata and Takayama. I didn't realize this until my sensei asked me to come and see the collection at the Yamagata post office yesterday. In Yamagat the display is a collection of about 100 prints at the post office and then a larger collection of about 300 in Takayama somewhere. Both are relitively small showings, but to have my print next to some serious masters of the art of moku-hanga is a real treat!

Jan 19.07 -> Plate 2

2007-01-19T08:32:00.000-08:00

Today I started in on the second of 6 plates for my Robot hanga print. I magaed to get about half of it cut, and its coming along well. This plate is fairly easy as there isn't much detail, and its pretty much all straight cuts. One difficulty that I'm encountering is the hardness of the wood. I choose my wood because it was quite hard, and could hold up to the detail of some of the areas in my design, but its also been the downside to much of the project so far. It is really tough to clear the open sections of the plate, and I'm worried that I'm killing my tools doing so. I'll have to make a trip to the knife store to get them properly affter this plate is finished......... fortunately its only 200 yen per tool.

In other news, I'm starting the preliminary sketches and designs for my Takayama exchange. The trade goes down in April, so I have to get cracking to make sure that I have enough time to get it all done. I'm planning a slighly ambitious project for this next print which will have me trying some embossing in combination with inking.............. I'm hoping it will all work out well and I'll learn a little in the process! I'll be seeking guidence from my Sensei along the way though.

LAiNE

Jan 16.07 -> My current project

2007-01-15T22:02:00.000-08:00

I just started in on a new hanga project this week. In the end I am hoping it will have 8 colour layers in total, but that hasn't been decided entirely. I have plates created to do 8, but I may do fewer depending on how much time I want to put into the project. I have another print that I am aiming to start and complete by the begining of March that will be for the Takayama print exchange that I am participating in. The size is fixed for that exchange, but that content is open...... I'm stoaked.