NATURAL INCLINATIONS:

Illustrating food and farms in relief prints

• Play with relief samples, carve a stamp

• look at some vocabulary:• so that we can look deeper at FOOD AND FARMING:

• explore the craft process and the visual imagery

• Brainstorm some ideas for age ranges

• unpack some interdisciplinary connections.

Inspired by Rose-finn potatoes from Taliaferro Farms, New Paltz

http://www.teacollection.com/blog/tag/green-living/

• http://society6.com/edhepp/muir-trees_print#1=45

• “January Bamboo,” 18″ x 26″, potato print, © Tracy Simpson

Understanding

“May Days,” 18.5″ x 26″, Potato Print, Tracy Simpson

STEPS TO UNDERSTANDING & VISUAL PROBLEM-SOLVING

• DESCRIPTION: • Describe/List/Record/Draw/Share what you notice

ANALYSIS: • Look for Conceptual/Physical connections/relationships between elements

of the image

• INTERPRETATION:• Questions for the artist? What would you ask the artist?

• What have we discovered?

• EVALUATION:• Useful for grading based on criteria for a project, self evaluation or

summarizing understanding of a work of art.

Relief Printmaking

• Printmaking is an art form that allows for multiple images to be created from an original block. Traditionally the printmaker determines the number of prints to be created and then strikes the block – which is marking it in some way to make further impressions impossible. Edition or limited edition is the term for this series of prints. Artist proof (AP) is the term for the prints made along the way to “proof “ the block and determine the cutting progress on paper. Editions usually are numbered with a fraction. The top number is the sequential print (2/25) and the bottom the total number of prints in the edition.

• In a relief print the negative area or (white area) of the final image are carved away, this is called subtractive or reductive – and ink is rolled on the surface. Paper is placed on the block and burnished by hand or sent through a press to transfer the ink into the paper. Some texture from the block imprints as well.

Albrecht Durer German, 1471-1528)

Northern Renaissance

HISTORICAL CONTRASTLINEAR IN STYLE

WOODCUT (LONG-GRAIN OF WOOD)BEGINNING OF MEDIUM AS MESSAGE

JOSE GUADALUPE POSADAWORK IS EXAMPLE OF ADVOCACY, WORKER RIGHTS, HUMAN RIGHTS

Mexican Illustrator from the 1920s best known for his “calaveras” and satirical drawings about political issues. He is considered as the father of Mexican printmaking.

http://ebardesign.wordpress.com/2012/02/01/jose-guadalupe-posada/

FRANK EcKMAIR

• http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/eckmair/

CLARE LEIGHTON

LAND MOVEMENT AND CONSERVATION FARMING LIFE IN THE 1940’S

WOOD ENGRAVING (END GRAIN WOOD) NATURE WRITING/ILLUSTRATION

Clare Leighton was an artist, writer and wood engraver, best known for her illustrated books recording English rural life (The Farmer's Year, 1933, Four Hedges, 1935), and her recording of life in America to where she emigrated in 1939. Southern Harvest, 1942 New England Industries, 1952, (produced for Wedgwood) are amongst the most celebrated and poignant records of American rural life of their period.

http://www.clareleighton.com

ELIZABETH CATLETT 1915- 2012

WORK IS EXAMPLE OF ADVOCACY, CIVIL RIGHTS

Wanda Gag, AMERICAN 1893-1946

Wanda’s Method

• Linocut and Linoleum-cut is a printmaking technique similar to that of the woodcut, the difference being that the image is engraved on linoleum instead of wood. Since linoleum offers an easier surface for working, linocuts offer more precision and a greater variety of effects than woodcuts. Long disparaged by serious artists as not challenging enough, the linocut came into its own after artists like Picasso and Matisse began to work in that technique.

• Whimsical, children’s books, linoleum, masterful darks and lights, rural settings.

MICHAEL McCURDY

• Michael McCurdy is an award-winning artist, illustrator, author and publisher who has worked from his red barn studio in the hills of Great Barrington for the past twenty-five years. Born in New York City in 1942 and raised in New Rochelle, New York and Marblehead, Massachusetts, he attended the school of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (which provided him with a traveling scholarship in 1966), and Tufts University in Medford.  Since then, McCurdy has produced an impressive collection of wood engravings, etchings and drawings which have appeared in over 200 books for both adults and children and at art galleries and museums nationwide.

• http://www.berkshares.org/about/michael.htm

MARY AZARIAN

FARM LIFE, MEDIEVAL INFLUENCE, ILLUSTATES CURRENT FOOD ISSUES

MATERIALS

• A number of different materials can be carved to make relief prints. Wood was the earliest material used – and usually some wood grain is evident in prints. Early woodblock prints were somewhat linear and usually illustrated text – the bible being one of the first “printed”

• End- grained wood is used for engraving – tighter grain for tiny details, cut into smaller blocks. (wood engraving)

• Linoleum is made from cork, linseed oil and rolled onto burlap. (linocut)

• Synthetic materials are now used that are plastic or rubber in nature - more sustainable?

• Alternative materials: sponges, foam rubber, potato, erasers, cardboard, rubber stamps, (vulcanized rubber), any found object that create a raised surface and can be stamped or put through a press without crushing, be dipped and stamped.

http://www.maryazarian.com/index.html

BELKIS RAMIREZ

Illustrations for a A CAFECITO STORY

FROM THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

CURRENT FRAMING PRACTICES

SUSTAINABLE COFFEE PRODUCTION

SURREALISTIC INFLUENCES

http://www.uprising-art.com/es/portfolio/belkis-ramirez-de-mar-en-peor/

SWOON

http://www.deitch.com/projects/project_images.

SWOON:ADVOCACY

HUMAN RIGHTS

WORKERS RIGHTS

LINOLEUM & WOOD CUT PORTRAITS

INSTALLATIONS

STREET ART

Artemio Rodriguez

Artemio Rodriguez (b. 1972, Tacambaro, Michoacan, Mexico) is an artist whose work is as current as a graffiti wall, yet grounded in traditions that reach back to the Middle Ages. Primarily a print marker, he has departed at times from paper to apply his imagery on cars and even skateboards.

In form, his work pays tribute to the Mexican master, José Guadalupe Posada. Like Posada’s woodcuts, Rodriguez’s prints are aggressive and provocative. Both artists excel at pushing the simple craft of woodcut printing to its limits. These are not artists that use the print as a secondary form of expression, but rather they use the technique as their primary medium.

http://www.escapeintolife.com/artist-watch/artemio-rodriguez/

PART OF THE MEXICAN PRINT MOVEMENTADVOCACY,

GRASSROOTS IMAGERY APPLICATION OF IMAGES TO CARS, SKATE OBJECTS

JOEL RENDON

ADVOCACY, MEXICAN PRINT WORKSHOPS, FARMING, FOOD ISSUES, CULTURAL ISSUES IN WOODCUTS, LINOCUTS AND WOOD ENGRAVING.

Work for HUDSON VALLEY SEED LIBRARY – copyright Hudson Valley Seed Library 2103

ART ADVOCACY• Art has some unique qualities that balance Current CORE subjects in Public

education:

• Action based

• Shares this ACTION with music, dance, & theatre.

• Visual in nature (non-verbal)

WEBSITES FOR MORE ARTISTS/PROCESSES

• http://justseeds.org• http://www.woodengravers.co.uk/index.html• http://iskrafineart.com/marking-time-tracy-simpson-and-the-contemplative-art-of-potato-pri

nting/• http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/indepth/homes_and_gardens/11131518.print/• http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/jun/21/how-to-print-with-potatoes• http://www.katyelliott.com/blog/2010/05/sara-elizabeth-block-printers-studio.html• www.ginapalmerillustrations.com• http://www.stjudesprints.co.uk/• http://www.marthastewart.com/906821/block-printing/@center/276982/craft-tools-and-proj

ects#904331

Good reminder of the pure joy in nature.

Useful when the conversation gets heated

My work is about the intersection of farming, nature and communication. I love the linocut medium for its physicality, accessibility, and direct, bold qualities. Long associated with grassroots purposes that included letterpress traditions and graphic elements, a “broadsheet” or poster is used to public appearance. This feels right as a choice for many current applications in the farm and food conversation.

I enjoyed sharing the work of artists who helped to shape my ideas. I hope this will be helpful as a reference in the process of exploring art to inform the issues. Thank you for the meaningful conversation and your participation in the workshop! Please stay in touch!

Gina Palmer

ginapalmerillustrations.com

Illustration copyright Gina Palmer Illustration 2013

Created for Wright Farms