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Etsy FolkModernArt

Long time no Blog.

What have I been up to in the past few months since last I posted?

Basically, I have kept on working retail, and working as an intern at Mellwood art Center in Louisville. During this time I also had a piece in the Bacon Ball Art Show at the Louisville Water Tower, I had a month long gig working at Identity Customs printing T-shirts that didn't last very long, but taught me a little bit more about screenprinting apparel.

The rest of the time I have been getting my studio into working order and printing. I have made my first CMYK process prints, and have been printing everything I can get my hands on, from aprons, and t-shirts, to book covers, and paper. In addition, I have got my buttonmaker going, and I am making all kinds of buttons.

I have created a page on facebook for all of my printing endeavors and you can find it by doing a Facebook search for "Folk Modern Print and Design" In addition to the Facebook Page, there is an etsy site with some of my stuff for sale at http://www.etsy.com/people/FolkModernArt?ref=si_pr. There is a twitter if you are a twitter-er, under the name Folkmodernart.

So add all of those sites to your sites and look at the new stuff I have been working on.

See you guys around. Thanks for reading after all this time.

Folk Modern

Over the course of the past year or so I have been tossing an idea around in my head but I wasn't quite sure what it was for. In a way it felt like an artist statement, like I was trying to create a new art movement. At first I called it Neo-Folk, and eventually it turned into folk-modernism.

Folk-modernism was a play on post-modernism. The idea being that it was supposed to be "The New Folk". Digital art was becoming more prevalent, and we were entering the information age where the phrase "Print is dead" became true in some extents with books, magazines, and physical cd packaging becoming obsolete. As a reaction to this Folk-modernism was about using these obsolete technologies and ideas to create contemporary work.

It was about people enjoying the communal aspects of print as opposed to the cold humanity-less digital printing.

It was about printmaking as an experience.

It was about making something with your hands that other people would want to touch with their hands.

It was probably something that I would never have tried to sell as an art movement (how pretentious?).

So instead, I kept it to myself, made little doodles here and there and applied to grad school, but did not mention this. Then grad school didn't happen, and I turned 29. I realized that I didn't have a whole lot of options. I couldn't find a job that I liked, or one that would hire me, and I felt like all I did was work retail. I told myself that retail was not my destiny, but maybe it is, I just need to be my own boss and make things that I care about.

I have been telling people for years now that I either want to be a teacher or own my own print shop. So now I am going to try my hand at the whole eBay, Etsy thing and see how that goes.

I will get my home screenprinting set up going, sell some of my art prints, hopefully take on more commissions, and sell some vintage clothing too. Essentially, I hope to build up enough of a presence under the name Folk Modern, so that I eventually make enough money to make it a real life store and pay taxes and everything! You can check out the facebook page right now and "Like" it if you want! Hopefully some more stuff will be coming soon! FOLK MODERN ON FACEBOOK

Need to Print

Bret Easton Ellis as The Patron Saint of Writers

The printmaking urge is hitting me pretty hard. I think that the lack of practice with the possibility of making this into a legit venture is making me antsy. The 10 hours shifts at work are taking for ever and when I am finally set free I go home to disappointing printmaking results.

Tonight I didn't even bother burning as screen. I have accepted the fact that I need new lighting fixtures, and special bulbs to do this right. So tonight I took the plans I printed off the internet, and drew my own special little exploded diagram of what it should look like, and went to both Lowe's and The Home Depot to find the pieces I needed. Neither of them had exactly what I was looking for and I didn't know exactly what kind of bulbs constituted Black Light Bulbs without the UV filter. Home Depot had plant and aquarium bulbs. Is that the same thing??

I think that I am just going to have to do some more research and buy online somewhere. Until then I may just have to start a new relief print, or attempt monoprinting again. Or I will just have to go to work, and then come home and play Call of Duty until I can get the equipment I need. I will say that as frustrating as everything is, and as much as I would like to just say "#$%%^ it!" and go watch TV, it feels good to be heading in this direction, and it is exciting to be back in the game a little bit even if it is a bunch of screw ups.

Printmaking at Home

I once spent an entire day making an edition of prints in my bedroom. It was probably a 5 or 6 color screenprint using drawing fluid and screen blocker based on a portrait of Edie Sedgwick. It took all day, but it worked, looked pretty good, and was pretty well registered.

I also once took over the kitchen floor to make a few screenprints of a city scene using photo emulsion on a giant self constructed screen frame and printed on canvas.

When I graduated from college, I used a screen at home to burn an image I used to make Thank You notes.

I have also ruined 3 or 4 screens trying to do photo emulsion at home.

I have been ready to try it again, and over the past 3 days have done just that. I bought some really nice aluminum frame screens from the internet, and we almost have a room set up at home where we can do arts and craft stuff without messing up the living room with all our art junk.

Every night for the past 3 nights I have coated these screens, and then attempted to burn them. I am using the same lights that I am pretty sure have worked in the past, only this time I am trying to work my way up with the timing so I don't waste my money with these screens.

The first night was 10 minutes and it washed the whole screen out.
The second time was for 20 minutes and it washed the entire image out and left the border.
The third time it was for 30 minutes and washed most of the image out.
Last night I tried it for 45 minutes and it still washed the image out.

This is beginning to frustrate me because i don't have a lot of time on my hands to do this kind of stuff, and I definitely do not have the money to keep buying equipment meant for pros, or using all my photo emulsion on attempts and not prints.

I already bought the new frames, and a new hose attachment for spraying out the emulsion. I have plans from the screenprintingguy.com for an exposure box, so I think that I might have to actually go out and construct this thing from scratch.

It will cost around $100 according to most estimates I have read, but I think really what's going to bug me is buying all the pieces and waiting to construct it. Due to my work schedule, this will no doubt delay my screenprinting by around 4 days just to buy the materials. But I guess it is better to do it right than to keep trying to do it wrong.

Experiment Failure

My idea to do something artistic for the next 40 days was a much bigger undertaking than I initially thought. Today I had an idea for a screenprint planned, but couldn't find some of my supplies, and like always, had a hard time figuring out the best way to burn a screen for printing without ruining the screen.

I found my supplies, and tried to burn the screen, but most of it washed out. I think that for some reason I underestimated how much I have going on in my life also. I normally work 45-50 hours a week not including the 6-8 hours at Mellwood Art Center, or travel time between the places. It would have been easier to quit something than to add something into the mix.

This doesn't mean I give up though. That is kind of the point of this experiment. I wanted to see if I could make 1 piece for each day of lent so maybe if I can just make 40 pieces of artwork in 40 days we can call it a win.

I actually have been thinking that 20 is a more realistic number so that I have time to prep. I realized that prep time is a lot more essential in my work than I thought. I can't just sit down and whip out something, there is a lot of work that goes into printmaking before the print ever begins. I also realized that I should have planned out this whole "art for 40 days" thing a little more in advance. The rules are changing already on the second day.

So I think that the more realistic goal will be to do nothing but print related stuff and just try to aim for 20. If more happen great. Also, I have decided that all work will be standard paper size, and if they are editionable it will be in an edition of 40. If I make a zine, there will be 40, a wood cut print 40 a screenprint 40 and so on. I will call it "Print for Lent".

Art for Lent

Even though I am not really associated with any religion, I love to learn about the different traditions, and the history of different sects. One of the things that I have found most interesting in religions are the practices that require the follower to deprive themselves of something in remembrance of an event, or to achieve a spiritual goal.

Buddhist and Hindu ascetics deprive themselves of worldly possessions and desires to become One, or to escape the cycle of rebirths, Muslims deny themselves during Ramadan, and usually Catholics give up some vice or habit during Lent. I admire these actions for the amount of faith they have to believe in something so strongly, and the will power, and patience, it must take to alter your habits even for a short amount of time.

Every year I say i will not eat from sunrise to sunset during Ramadan, then 3 hours later I am eating a burrito. So this year I thought that instead of denying myself something like sodas or meat, I will instead make this 40 days a time where I will ADD something to my life. Instead of denying myself something, I will force myself to make something new everyday. It probably won't help my chances with the man upstairs but it may still be good for my soul.

THE RULES
1.Everyday for 40 days starting on Wednesday March 9, I will do something artistic. I will try not to phone it in, but since I work 7 days a week I can not promise they will all be winners. Get ready for a lot of self portraits.

2.The medium does not matter. I am going to try to make it stuff I would normally make. More than likely there will be zines, prints, and drawings. Some street art type things may creep in, and if for some reason I feel as though a performance art piece is necessary, I will post the video.

3.Some work will take preparation. For example, if I am working on a woodcut, there will be lots of time cutting, but little time printing. in these cases I will still post pics of what I worked on, and describe it, and I will also submit a finished piece to accompany it. More than likely it will be a drawing of some kind.

4.Oh yeah, I will be posting these things on this blog where I will also write about the process, and the piece as necessary.