#9 of Top 10: "Lotus"

“Lotus”, 2000
Serigraph
12 7/8” x 8 3/4”
Edition of 20

Lotus is another image that kicked around for a long time before it found the proper medium to present it. I love the metaphor of the lotus- a plant that lives in three worlds (mud/water/air) and represents the four elements (earth, water, air and fire (sun)). I’m interested in the flower as a metaphor for the awakening of consciousness. I had attempted a painting of the same image back in 1992 but didn’t feel that it conveyed the feeling I was going for. I was always hoping to give it another go at some point.

In the winter of 1999 I was introduced to Malaquias Montoya (http://www.malaquiasmontoya.com). Malaquias is an artist of great conviction, as well as, a font of information on screen printing (or serigraphy) and the Chicano art movement. The University of Notre Dame had invited Malaquias as a visiting professor to teach screen printing for a semester. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to learn from a master so I arranged my work schedule to attend his morning class.

Serigraphy turned out to be the missing link I had searched for between painting and color printmaking. Malaquias’ instruction helped me bridge the gap between the two mediums by showing me that you could be as tight or as loose as you wanted to be when making images with the screen. I loved the immediacy that the water borne inks allowed when layering colors.

When it came time to work on some images I pulled out some old sketches as reference for something new. I thought I would revisit the lotus idea and try one last time to get it right.

I used one screen and a stop out method to paint out the various layers of color. Using this method I first chose what was going to remain white on the page and blocked that out with some screen filler and ran a light yellow tint. Next, I chose what areas of the yellow were going to remain blocked them out and printed the next color. This process continued – light to dark and always on the same screen. I would block out more and more with a brush to give it a loose painting feel and to limit where the next color would lay. I worked on this most of the day and into the evening. I remember Malaquias coming in the next morning and asking how many colors I had pulled. I told him I had lost count after 18 and he laughed in amazement (at my tenaciousness, I think). I couldn’t help myself. Every time I put down another tone I would see where I could push the area some more. I finally had to stop when the stop-out I had used started to break down. The only other screen I used was for a tonal overlay on the figure to give him a little more definition.

Malaquias Montoya was, and continues to be, an inspiration to me - not only as an artist but as a person. He’s constantly working and is a prolific artist. During the class he could always be found in the lab working on his own prints but willing to help someone out with technical questions whenever possible. It was an enlightening experience to see this man work and encourage the students in the class. Our friendship has continued since that class and I always look forward to see what new work he is doing.

Some of the prints that I created during the semester I attended his class were: Lotus, Dowser Drowse, Corazon, Bendicion and Tamaleros.

"Anhelo" Part II or Anatomy of a Print...

In March of 2004 I had the honor of being one of the 18 artists selected to be part of the 11th Serie Project at Coronado Studio in Austin, Texas. The week of Monday March 15 – Saturday the 20th was spent printing the print “Anhelo”. I traveled to Austin with anticipation of working on a new print in a new environment and among new acquaintances. I took along some tunes, a digitally drawn color image, a to-scale printout of my idea as reference for creating the print and an open mind. I worked with master printer, Satch Grimley. Satch was great at intuiting what I had in mind and worked with great dedication mixing and pulling colors for the print. I also had in mind catching a few performances at the yearly South by Southwest music festival.

Monday Satch cut down paper, set registrations and prepared screens while I did some ebony pencil tone drawing on textured mylar. We decided four basic color break-outs were needed for a good base to start from so I did a lot of drawing the first two days.

Tuesday Satch and Coronado intern, Dominic Pagalilanan, started pulling transparent layers of background colors. They layered the four basic colors as I worked up the mylar drawings for transfer onto the separate screens. We strayed from the original print idea by creating a border effect around the main image (which ended up putting us a couple of inches over the Serie Project’s maximum image size standard.)

Wednesday printing continued. More transparent layers were laid down bringing more definition to the figure and background areas. I worked into some of the drawings on mylar with India ink and used these to shoot new screens. The ink made a stronger contrast in blocking out the screen and helped get more concentrated areas of color. Wednesday night Satch and I caught some of the SXSW shows in downtown Austin. The standout performances were by the Futureheads and Destroyer.

Thursday we continue to define areas with more transparent layers. I am suddenly aware that time is short. Satch and I both conclude that doing the ebony drawing on mylar took up more valuable time than necessary so we have to make that up somehow. My flight out is early Sunday morning and the prints need to be done before then. Thursday night Dominic and I head downtown to catch some more of the SXSW. I met up with one of my old Art Academy student turned rockstar, Patrick Keeler (from The Greenhornes and now The Raconteurs.)

Friday we put in the longest day ever. Satch amazes me by pulling many colors this day. Around 1:00 a.m. (Saturday) we called it quits as we were both wiped out and starting to lose focus. I liked where we were but I could see the image needed to be pushed and pulled in a few areas to really make it work. I was worried because Satch had prior commitments of his own at Flatstock and I didn’t know if the print would be finished to my satisfaction. During the day my old high school buddy McCleod shows up but I'm too far behind and busy to really get a chance to talk to him. We plan a time to meet later that night but printing late causes me to miss that meeting.

Saturday morning Sam comes in and we talk over the status of the print. Sam agreed that the print needed a few more steps. He made a call to Marie, the wonder woman. While Sam and Marie shot more screens, mixed more colors and pulled more layers I blocked out more templates. Late in the evening I got into pulling some colors myself. We worked the whole day until 10:00 p.m. or so. Finally we got to where I was satisfied with the print. But we still weren’t done. Our next steps included selecting the prints for the edition, signing them all and adding the Coronado chop mark.

Over all this was a great experience for me. A whole week in total working environment is really a luxury for me at this point of my career. I’d like to thank Sam Coronado and all the staff at the studio for being so generous and kind towards me while we produced this print: Satch Grimley, Marie Garza, Leah Hesla, Dana McBride and Dominic Pagalilanan. I would also like to thank Gilberto Cardenas and Notre Dame University’s Latino Studies for sponsoring my trip to and from Austin and making this endeavor possible. A special thanks goes to Marie Garza for photographing the process.

#10 of Top 10: "Anhelo" (part I)

“Anhelo”
2004, 26 x 16”, serigraph print
edition 65
Printed at Coronado Studio, Austin, TX

“Anhelo” is one of those images that had a long gestation period and continues to haunt me. To date I have made three versions of this image (a digital painting in photoshop, a charcoal drawing, and a serigraph print.) I think the initial idea came to me back in 1993 when I was creating my underwater series, but it wasn’t until much later that I actually committed a sketch to paper (a doodle really, in the margins of one of my work calendars during a staff meeting). The plunge was the basic aspect I wanted to represent. Cannonball, bubbles billowing overhead, a bubble tornado – a disturbance in the calm.

Later, the idea grew. I wanted there to be a purpose to the plunge some action that would pose a bigger question. The figure began to hold onto something. The thing was either going to help or hinder him. In the end the “thing” grew to represent that which one holds onto, stubbornly, far past the point where it’s good for you. Will you let it go – or will you let it drag you down?

The title is the bow on the package. Anhelo is the Spanish word for desire or longing.

#11 of Top Ten: "Chris Cross"

“Chris Cross”
2005, 11 x 11” wood block relief print
edition of 25

This print was created along with three others for an exhibit at The Moreau Gallery at Saint Mary’s University in 2005. The four were part of a small series based on my hopes, dreams, fears and wishes for my two small sons. The other three prints are: “Bendicion”, “Trenza (self portrait)” and “TV (fear).”

“Chris Cross” represents my concern over the contamination and destruction of our environment as it relates to future generations. There’s nothing too subtle about the image – there’s the polluted water, the deforested landscape and in the background a billowing cloud from nuclear reactors. When the idea first came to me I knew I wanted a person crossing a river. The crossing theme is one I’ve come back to more than once in my work (see “Memoria”, “Umbral”, and “Crossing (coyote)” as examples). What I wanted to do was contrast the idea with some mythic references to give it some depth. One day while I was driving around the idea flashed on how I could accomplish this. St. Christopher would be crossing the river.

I’ve always liked the Christopher legend. (I won’t give you the whole thing you can Wikipedia it.) I liked the giant and child aspect, the weight of the world in the Christ child’s person, the pun name (Christos = Christ, pherein = bear across …Christ carrier). I thought that it would be interesting to see Christopher try to ferry JC across a filthy polluted river. Even with his rubber waders the giant has paid a toll as evidenced by his lesion pocked skin. It can’t all be grim though. Just like in the legend there is the hope that the giant’s staff will flower again.

A couple of nods are given to two of my favorite artists, Edvard Munch and Dr. Seuss. I’m sure you’ll have no trouble picking those out.

"There are places I remember..."

2008, January 2

I spent most of my time off from work traveling and visiting people. First up to the U.P. (Upper Peninsula of Michigan Eh!) for Christmas and then to West MI to visit my family and some friends. I wasn’t able to get to everyone I wanted to see. By the end of all the traveling (with two rambunctious boys), eating and sleeping in other people’s houses, and overloads of both good and bad food (sometimes it’s hard being a veggie in a carnivorous world)…I was glad to be home. And I thought I was going to get some studio time somewhere in there…riiiiiiight.

One very cool thing I did was visit with my longtime friend, Sue. Sue and I go way back. She was not only my middle school art teacher she was also my art teacher for the last two years of high school. What cemented our friendship was a mutual love for all things Beatles (and art of course!) Sue has been one of the influential persons in my life that kept me on the art-making track through the weird teenage years and beyond.

A bonus to meeting up with Sue again was seeing and spending time in her Beatles shrine (my description). She and her late husband have been big collectors of Beatles music and memorabilia since they were quite young. Sue has been busy over the last months since her retirement organizing the huge collection. I could spend days in that room – hundreds of books, buttons, figurines, pictures, and music! Along with her own Beatles inspired artwork there’s hundreds of vinyl records, cds, tapes, you name it – a Beatlemaniac’s delite.

I loved to draw and I loved Beatles music before my 11-year old self ever walked into her classroom but Sue’s enthusiasm, passion, and encouragement were contagious forces that led me to pursue an art career. Thanks Sue.

#12 of the TOP TEN:

I tallied up the votes from my myspace friends and had a tie in the last four prints people wanted to know about. So, instead of a "Top 10" you'll get a "Top 12". I'll begin with number 12:

“Chasing Thoughts…”, 1993, woodblock relief print, 11 1/8 x 7 7/8”

In the winter of 1993 I had just completed graduate school, had no studio to paint in, and little money to my name. At Christmas time I wanted to make something for my family in lieu of having to buy presents. I had scrap wood I’d salvaged from the arts center I worked at so I decided to make a relief print that I could print by hand in my apartment. My first attempt was “Volador” which I loved, however, it’s 18 x 24” size was way too much work to print by hand in time for that particular Christmas. “Chasing Thoughts…” was the second and smaller attempt.

The idea for making prints instead of painting meant a change in my method of working. I wanted the prints to be radically different in process from my standard way of working. I didn’t want to spend many hours and days making studies and references for life like accuracy. I wanted the pieces to be immediate and not necessarily true to life in subject matter and presentation. I wanted to go with an initial impulse with little editing. I also chose to work from memory in describing the figures and environments. Dreams, memories and out of context ideas left in sketchbooks were to be the source for images.

The initial idea for “Chasing Thoughts…” came from a dream I had in which a guru-like man was talking to a group of people on the second floor of an apartment house. He sat cross-legged, with his back to a wall, while many people sat in front facing him. As he spoke to those gathered around I was stuck outside on the balcony peering in through the sliding glass doors. An old friend came up the stairs intending to sit in but we began to talk and catch up instead. In the end, we both missed the discussion.

The rest of the dream unfolded in a dramatic way until I awoke. The rest of the day I carried on at my job but couldn’t shake the persistent memory of the dream and a feeling that I had missed out on some really important message being transmitted by the guru-man. At some point during the day a song came on the player that suddenly locked together with the dream residue and formed an immediate image in my head. The song was “Secret Journey” by the Police. The whole song resonated with my feelings associated with the dream but the line that got me was:
“…And on the days that followed
I listened to his words
I strained to understand him
I chased his thoughts like birds…”

Most images I work out take hard effort to come up with, but every once in a while an image presents itself in an almost fully realized way. This image was one of the latter. I envisioned a literal interpretation of the song lyric, saw the figures, saw the birds emerging from someone’s head and I saw the vantage point. I made a quick notation in my sketchbook so as not to forget it and waited anxiously to get home in order to work it out on the block.

Once home I drew out the image on a block in pencil and prepared to carve. At once, the problem arose as to how to represent the figures as volumetric forms with only line to work with. For the longest time I had been working predominately in paint where I could blend and glaze to create volume. Representational relief printing had always seemed so flat and boring to me when I studied in school, which is one of the reasons I avoided it. I recalled my love of M.C. Escher prints and how he used contour line to magnificently describe objects. I knew this was the way to go for me as well. I would use the weight of line and cross contour to give me the volume, dimension, and patterning that I sought. I also included stipple marks as a contrast to all the linear and planar forms. I love to play at contrasts for a fuller range of possibilities: black and white, curve and straight line, flat and volume, chaos and order, movement and calm, etc.

The bird’s eye view composition is based on a spiral superimposed on an intersecting diagonal structure. My intention was to keep the viewer’s eye in constant motion from one side of the picture plane to another and from the outside to the “bird in hand” and back out again.

I am really pleased with the result and my family was too. Initially I printed up 25 prints for my family on a tableau paper. I later printed up a second edition of 25 on Sumi paper that I have available for sale on my website: RamiroRodriguez.com.

Prints and Sides

Last night in the studio I printed out 6 more sets of the 3x4" prints while watching the snow quickly accumulate outside. I made various variations of a violet color to use on "Air", "Bubble", "Annunciation", "Sh!tbag" and "Nullify".

All the while listening to my freshly received "Side Four Live" by Adrian Belew

This cd rocks!

First impressions:

Adrian Belew (and the Power Trio)
Side Four (Live)

Ade’s powerhouse trio kicks off with a frenetic yet tasty “Writing on the Wall” that is solidly grounded by Julie Slick’s bottom end. Makes me wonder if this is why the young woman wears no shoes on stage – perhaps to keep Adrian and her brother Eric’s fast paced chops from sailing off through the roof.
An old Crimson favorite from THRAK, “Dinosaur” comes next. The composition gets some new twists from the Trio, mainly substituting the synth guitar break for some signature Belew dino blasts. The Power Trio does the Double Trio proud.
The main groove of “Ampersand” gets more of an ebb and flow feel than the previous “Sides” cd versions. The drumming is not as busy yet still powerful with the right amount of finesse.
“Young Lions” has all the galloping jungle rhythm of the cd version. An added, almost bolero-esque, break provides the base for some crazy Belew guitar pyrotechnics.
Eric leads off “Beat Box Guitar” with some fine high-hat sticking. The trio has really expanded this gem into a highlight jam platform. The talented Slick rhythm section really holds it down while Adrian works over the top with an assorted bag of guitar sounds that are pure Belew. However this isn’t just a showcase for Ade, the three musicians really lock in with some great interplay and even drop in a “Discipline” nod.
Adrian’s layered backwards guitar sound on “Matchless Man” is one of the most strangely beautiful effects I’ve ever heard.
Eric and Julie lay down the ominous grounding groove to one of the harder songs for me to listen to on cd - “A Little Madness.” It’s difficult listening for sure. Live, however, this beast builds with the layered architecture of maddening looped Belew wailings. The live experience feel is excellently captured on Side Four and this track is the proof of the quality engineering and mastering done by John Sinks and John Zonana respectively.
The hypnotic, “Drive,” allows an intermission of sorts as the Slicks take a breather. Adrian accompanies himself via rhythms built from loops. My very favorite part in this solo piece speaks to my inner Beatlemaniac - the “Within You Without You” reference. Wow!
The Slicks rejoin Ade for a rollicking “Of Bow and Drum” complete with ghost harmony vocals by Biff Blumfumgagne. I’ve always loved the pinched squeal of the guitar on this piece but it’s Belew’s attention to contrast in texture that really makes it for me. Julie and Eric’s groove at the end is a treat as well.
The re-vamped, big drum sound of “Big Electric Cat” made me think I was going to hear “Gun Man” for the first few beats. The update polishes up this older favorite.
Two classic 80’s Crimson songs played as encores during the tour close out the cd. “Three of a Perfect Pair” is probably my favorite KC tune and watching/hearing Adrian playing his and Robert’s parts while singing in odd time is amazing. Julie’s playing and rich sound should make Tony smile. A short nod in the “Frame by Frame” direction is fun to hear as well.
A run through “Thela Hun Ginjeet” makes for the perfect leave-them-wanting-more ending to a great set and cd. Adrian is always a pleasure to experience live. I’ve seen him many times over the years with Crimson, the Bears and solo. Every time I’ve seen him play he always looks like he’s having the time of his life on stage. It’s nice to hear a recording that captures that sense of satisfaction. Time to hit repeat.