The Sun is Hotter Here: Roll, rip, print. #Repeat

In total I had four sessions with Lisa Lofgren. One planning and three “working,” if you can call our sessions “working.” We laughed, played, and experimented late into the night. With beers in hand we rolled flats, tore paper, and made Art! I am fortunate to have connected with Lisa and the outcomes are stellar. In our final session together we “scaled” up. We rolled massive “flats” of black ink onto the press and used full torn sheets to generate the “ripped” lines. In addition to the “rip” prints we took the previously torn sheets, which acted as masks, and mounted (Chincolled) them to a larger heavier sheets of paper. It is unfortunate, but the detail is lacking in the photos. The beauty of these prints is in their minute features. The way the ink gently bleeds through the torn edge, mild contrasts between the cream and white papers and the stark black ink, and how the thud of the ink lives on the paper. Some truly amazing things are happening.

This mini-residency in Bloomington Normal has been incredibly productive. Still in dialogue with my interests, these works on paper have afforded me a new and fresh vantage point. Sol Lewitt’s sentences on conceptual art appear on the first page of my Master’s thesis, well, the last four of them do. They are words I have lived by. For some reason they seemed to be on my mind more so during this project. I think I was trying to un-slick my art, not be too precious with the execution, and just let the idea unfold. I was remembering what I had forgot.

32. Banal ideas cannot be rescued by beautiful execution.

33. It is difficult to bungle a good idea.

34. When an artist learns his craft too well he makes slick art

35. These sentences comment on art, but are not art.

I think Lisa and I did no bungling over the last two weeks ;)

A staged photo.