those last details

To get some faces and other details on my art piece (my public commission) I today masked out some of the black and handed the pieces back to the company Guson for being pulver spray painted white. They have until the beginning of August to finish the job of painting my approximately 60 pieces.  So far everything seems fine - touch on wood - and I hope I'll be able not to think about it at all when I'll be on vacation in July!

HDK summer course: Ola Åstrand

Artist Ola Åstrand gave a lecture at the HDK summer course in screenprinting today. Ola works a lot with screenprint in big format in his art. He prints in 70 x 100 cm and then glues the pieces together to form bigger pictures directly on the wall. (like many street artists working with posters) The display, the installation, in his exhibitions are of great importance. I found it interesting that he based the lecture on his blog where he had documented exhibition installations as well as his art.

After the lecture we visited Ola's retrospective exhibition at Galleri Thomassen - the exhibition was actually over, but as it was still there we got to see it. Ola was the perfect lecturer for the course.

Testing and the Tempest

The initial short and intense screenprinting period (3 days) of the summer course is over; test prints with smaller frames on different materials and getting the hang of printing big format on vacuum table and with a "printing arm" (not sure about the English word for this). My students completed the first assignment together: an 18 meters long print based on the first scene of Shakespeare's The Tempest (in an edition of two, with variations).

SCENE I. On a ship at sea: a tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning heard. Enter a Master and a Boatswain Master Boatswain! Boatswain Here, master: what cheer? Master Good, speak to the mariners: fall to't, yarely, or we run ourselves aground: bestir, bestir.

A confused noise within: 'Mercy on us!'-- 'We split, we split!'--'Farewell, my wife and children!'-- 'Farewell, brother!'--'We split, we split, we split!'

demanding to teach sometimes

I managed to get a 15 minutes lunch break today. Tomorrow we'll have to finish up the first assignment (I'll show you) and I think I might get even less break then.  I'm too tired now to think of anything more to write.

spinning head

Could it be that visit to the amusement park yesterday in order to celebrate my birthday ? Or could it be the 10 hours I spent both preparing for and teaching screenprint in big format today? (the summer course has started)

new wish: tuft my own rug

Today when I was at KKV (artist-run collective workshops) preparing for my course I bumped into Emma Ströde who was finishing up a commissioned rug. She learned tufting through an exchange; casting bronz sculpture for a lesson in tufting. The small rugs she made of left over yarn - they look like cakes, don't they?

light window

I have a light table, but sometimes I prefer working directly on the window glass.   (it's Red Riding Hood's face)

still learning

this might just interest screen printing buffs: I recently learned that you can fold a triangular squeegee support out of cardboard, attach it with scotch - and then get less messy while printing (before I just leaned the squeegee on the border of the frame). For the HDK (design school) summer course starting on Friday I've been gathering some examples of screenprinting in less ordinary ways: Luke O'Sullivan screenprints on wood  Various and Gould also use screenprint - but for making their "collage-poster-street art"

a secret sketch

real size drawing of the wolf.

Working on my commission again (seems to be a never ending story); some parts are going to be painted in two colours which means I have to mask out parts. I cut these masks by hand to adjust the original drawings to the actual aluminium shapes and to "hide the holes" we've drilled. The wolf's lines seem more abstract as I cut his original shape out of an old sketch. Take a closer look at the bottom wolf and you might be able see a part of a sketch of Snow White. (Or maybe only I can still see it? You can't see her face. Her cape is flying and her skirt is too - she's landing after flying - like a super hero).  I think it is very important to keep that drawing in the final version of the wolf - even though most people will not notice! (I will know - and so will you)

red riding hood

Red Riding Hood playing in a pond Yesterday we delivered all the aluminium parts to be painted ... but first we had to wait - for 4 hours - for the elevator to be repaired!

adding some colour

Last night I dreamt about my public commission; I was to mount it on the wall of the school and suddenly noticed I had made some parts of it in wool instead of aluminium. It started raining and the yellow came off Snow white's skirt and the wool just became really heavy and expanded all the way down to the ground...

Today I spend all day degreasing the 57 aluminium pieces (both sides!) and marking them with the correct RAL colour code. Tomorrow I'll leave everything to be powder spray painted.
... It's almost ready now. 

Some days off

Today is a holiday and so is Monday (Swedish National day).

prepared for teaching

print showing the colour possibilities when working in transparent layers (though we won't work with cmyk)

transparent green in layers printed on soft transparent plastic. Would be great for working with shadows

I printed on woven glass fabric - it gives the image a pixelated feeling. Bubble wrap is also great for pixelating.

Now I've finished preparing most materials for the screenprinting course I'll teach for HDK  (the design school). I think it's important to not just talk about different ways of working, but also to be able to show examples (... and not just show my normal way of working!) I'm looking forward to seeing what my students will come up with!

printing a summer meadow

In two weeks the big format screenprinting course will start. The focus is installation in space/scenografi rather than editions/prints on paper to be framed. I'm making some material tests and prepare some prints to show different techniques. Today I printed a summer meadow ... which is quite far from what my own art is about. (No, my art is not about happiness, even though there might be laughter.) 

first I cut some simple stencils

the stencils stick to the backside of the screenprinting frame thanks to the capillary attraction. I then painted flowers and such on the open mesh, filled the rest with green screenprinting ink - and printed.

Voilà!

Here I repeated the print (with some variation to make it more interesting)

another print, detail: layer on layer and with slightly different colours.(I think it would look nice as a textile print. On a summer dress?)

colouring page (print)

More experimenting. I masked out some parts I wanted to keep white, then painted directly in the open screenprinting frame, filled with transparent paste - and printed. Today I wasn't really concentrating properly though (could have made better prints) - I was at the same time working with my commission upstairs in the metal workshop. Some extra details needed to be fixed which couldn't wait.

Yesterday's printing results

First steps. I'll add more layers. (the light orange is the second layer. I'm making them all different)

a good laugh

A break from the aluminium (the screenprinting frame is made of aluminium though): I printed the painterly image I prepared the other week (made directly on architect drawing film and then exposed onto the screenprinting frame without any middle step in the computer). My idea here is to work in several transparent painterly layers to get a result closer to my paintings ... probably. Anyway, it's about experimenting and developing my screenprinting into something new. I'm very excited about this too...

obsessed by aluminium

I must admit that I'm someone who can get totally obsessed by things. Right now it's the aluminium (metal in general probably): the shine and the aesthetics of the backsides (the welding, screws and distances). I've tried working with glass - not me. Enamel - kind of me. Metal - me! I see so many possibilities. [...could just be a fling. When you're in the middle of it you can not distance yourself and see what's true love and what's just infatuation. Anyway I'll enjoy it while it lasts...]

me in action

photo: Lars Jonsson

photo: Eric Magassa Sometimes I need photos of myself working on my art ... but then I realize I have none ... When it comes to commissioned public art pieces I have many photos of work in progress. some of my assistants working, but none of me. (I'm somehow reluctant towards marketing my art with photos of me, but sometimes you might need to show who you are, to be a bit more personal) So this week I asked people at KKV to take my photo. As you can see I have fun when working!

instead of screenprinting

fitting, drilling, welding aluminium (last one not me, but my helper Arta)