In the Studio: It's All Personal
[In the Studio, July 2, 2011 /Image & Artwork: designslinger studio]
Art is very personal. Personal in its creation, and in our response to it. Sure there is consensus and mass acceptance of some works of art, but there is also a lot of head scratching "That's art?" bewilderment. Even though we're all basically the same, we are individuals, much like the materials used in creating artwork. Never assume that because printing ink is pretty much made the same way, that working with each ink is going to be the same, or linoleum block you carve into for that matter.
[In the Studio: It's All Personal /Image & Artwork: designslinger studio]
I know. It seems rather obvious that one ink isn't going to be the same as another, I mean they are made from different pigments with individual chemical components after all. However the wide variation in the maneuverability of each pigment can come as a surprise. Working with lemon yellow is smooth as butter, while cobalt blue rolls out on to the palette like wallpaper flocking.
After a while you come to understand each of their personal traits, but don't get too comfortable just because you think you know your cadmium red pretty well. One day you open the same tin containing the same color, spread your cad red on to the palette, and it's as though you're working with a total stranger.
The linoleum comes from the same manufacturer who most likely uses the exact same formula to produce the exact same product. Again, as with the ink, you can't expect one block to respond the same as another block. Maybe it was a bad day at the factory, or the block is a little older and more brittle, so you approach each one individually and work together to to find out more about one another. Some relationships work out perfectly, others not so much. Often a block will tease you into a pleasantly fulfilling, cut-pleasing comfort level, and then bam, slaps you upside-the-head with a big bump in the road.
So after a while you come to understand that although it's just ink, or linoleum, or a sheet of paper, they're no different than people you interact with. You think you know them and sometimes it's smooth sailing, while at other times you want to throw them across the room.
Comments