MONSTERS ON MAIN Oct. 22-Nov. 1

The show poster for Monsters on Main, a monster themed art show held by the Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana in autumn 2019

Image | 10/22/201905/26/2020 | sandpaperdaisy

I had two pieces in this show, Kelpie and Wendigo. Continue reading →

Be sure to catch the PRINTED group show at PG if you haven’t already!

Image | 02/17/201602/17/2016 | sandpaperdaisy

Check out this amazing show at PG Cafe and Gallery before it’s gone on Friday February 19th! A lot of pieces are still available for sale but since art is often sold INSANELY CHEAP around here, they won’t be for long. Below are just a couple of the zillion amazing pieces in this show to whet your appetite. As you can see, every traditional printmaking technique has been explored here…screen prints, woodcuts, linoleum block, intaglio, clay monoprint (my insane contribution), and a bunch of other cool stuff I didn’t even recognize…GO!

PG_StephanieOsborne_print_sandpaperdaisy

Our upcoming July 12 Hand Prints show featured in this Sunday’s paper!

07/06/201407/06/2014 | sandpaperdaisy

The Sunday paper today (Evansville Courier and Press) featured a beautiful spread with our art for the upcoming July 12 “Hand Prints” show at Wessleman’s Nature Center, as you can see. The online article is here: http://www.courierpress.com/news/2014/jul/05/arts-beat-printmakers-step-out-of-the-shadows-in/

Thanks to Stephanie Osbourne of littlelemonpress for her awesome snapshot of our article. The prints shown are two lovely block prints by Stephanie: “Zinnias” and “Life and Death,” and my very own Tentacle Raccoon at the far right.

Fenris Devouring the Sun, the rebirth of an old monoprint

this traditional mixed media print depicts fenris the wolf devouring the sun during ragnarok, the norse end of the world.

03/12/201403/09/2014 | sandpaperdaisy

I mentioned in “The Many Faces of Daedalus” how I liked to re-examine or even re-use old art to try and perfect an idea or turn it into something new entirely. Fenris Devouring the Sun is one of these pieces! The colorful background of this piece is in fact a very old monoprint of mine depicting the Sirens from the Odyssey. I never did anything special with this print, and when I finally pulled it out of my student portfolio a decade later I still enjoyed the vibrant colors but I was deeply unsatisfied with the clumsy linework. Experimenting, I turned the print this way and that to see if a different orientation suggested a new picture.

The results excited me. As the hair and faces of the sirens my lines were wholly unsuccessful, but as the body and rays of the sun and some suggestions of Fenris’s fur, they were perfect! I hastened to design Fenris around the lines I liked from my old monoprint and then soaked the old print in water and printed upon it with black. In fact, this image from the “ABOUT HEATHER” page shows me carving Fenris from humble typing paper with my trusty X-Acto knife. In the background at the far right, you can see my old monoprint too!

Then I continued to experiment, using watercolor, COPIC marker, india ink, just anything I could think of really. The result, I’m pleased to say, took a Juror’s Choice Award at the 2012 DOOMSDAY show! It also got the following comment from the judge:

“Heather Landry’s Fenris Wolf is a high-intensity nod to the near universality of end-of-the-world archetype across cultures.” -Rob Millard-Mendez, juror for the DOOMSDAY show

So there you have it, a successful makeover of a very student monoprint. Have any of you had good luck with revisiting a piece?

Fanciest workspace of all time

11/05/201204/13/2014 | sandpaperdaisy

A couple of months back, I got back into linoleum block printing again after an absence of more than a decade to participate in Hand Prints. I started with five different designs: Eurydice, Daedalus, Tentacle Raccoon, Bait, and Angel Rex. They were easy enough to create digitally (my current primary method of making art), but things changed once I faced the task of carving them, inking them, and getting them onto paper. It was quite the logistic challenge to figure out where in heck to do the printing and what I needed to do to make each piece come out all right. I took some photos of my workspace during the process.

I cleared half my kitchen table and made different stations for each activity. From the foreground: 1) rolling ink onto the brayer, 2) inking up the plate, 3) pressing paper onto the plate and burnishing and 4) wetting the paper.

As you can see I have an incredibly exact method for measuring out 8x10 inch sections of paper for printing.

As you can see I have an incredibly exact method for measuring out 8×10 inch sections of paper for printing.

I used the same method to measure out 5x7 inch sections.

I used the same method to measure out 5×7 inch sections.

To cut the paper all I used was a metal ruler and a cheap mat knife. I also have an old Xacto knife I use for that stuff.

A random glass casserole dish I can’t remember ever using makes a lovely surface for spreading ink. I have no idea where I got the cardboard either, but I think it used to be an appliance box. I found that putting paper onto the plate and then holding it in place with my hand while burnishing it really hard with the slightly convex top of my pepper grinder worked best.

I used a bathroom towel and another random casserole dish for wetting and then blotting the paper for the 8x10 "Eurydice" prints. They needed damp paper for the solid black sky to really come off the plate well. The 5x7 "Angel Rex" and "Bait" prints were much crisper and better using dry paper, as I discovered.

I used a bathroom towel and another random casserole dish for wetting and then blotting the paper for the 8×10 “Eurydice” prints. They needed damp paper for the solid black sky to really come off the plate well. The 5×7 “Angel Rex” and “Bait” prints were much crisper and better using dry paper, as I discovered.