Over the weekend, my wife and son went to Upstate New York to visit her sister. I was left alone to my own devices. I spent most of my time in the printmaking studio. I had one print job that had to be done…paying client. When I finished with the paying gig I had another print in me. So on Saturday morning around 11am, I started drawing. I was able to create, sketch, cut and print three blocks worth of color onto a pretty nice Phish Fall Tour Poster, all before 3am on Sunday. Print measures 9 x 22, printed on Polar White 90lb Stonehenge, with a double deckle edge. Edition Size 50. Prints will be available my webstore: http://marcguertincreative.bigcartel.com/product/phish-fall-tour-2014-phuego
Hawaiian Quilt Print. 1/1. Image Size: 15 x 15 (18 x 18 framed). Printed on Hand Made (by marc) Paper. Constructed of nearly 100% Recycle Materials. The paper was formerly legal documents. The frame was formerly peices of my house, The deacon Evelyn Blakeslee House, c1773. The only new materials used were 8 nails and the ink.
Transferring an image onto a block is not as complicated as it might sound. There are many ways to accomplish this. You can draw directly on the block, you can project the image onto the block, or you can simply trace your image onto the block. For this project I photocopied a quilted pillow case my wife picked up in Kauai this past winter. Many people use carbon paper to transfer the image to the block. No carbon paper, no problem: covering the back of the image you want to trace with pencil will also make it fairly easy to transfer the image. Tape the image and carbon paper (if you are using it) to the block and use a pencil or fine point pen and trace over the image, applying a fair amount of pressure. Remove the image and the carbon paper if used. Cut. Print.
The good thing about being a block printer is that you are in control of the entire printmaking process from design through execution of the image. The bad thing about being a block printer is that you are in control of the entire process, which includes cleaning and other minute and time consuming processes. My creative process is messy. Paper covers the floor and so do pencils. Once I have a designed nailed down it’s time to clean. Today is that day. I cannot move onto the next step without cleaning the studio up. I need a semi organized space to cut the blocks..at which point I will clean again…linoleum scraps will cover the workspace. Then I can finally print, which has the most involved cleanup of all. So today I clean.
Phish: Commerce City Colorado, August 29-31. This is a four color, hand pressed block print. The poster measures 11 x 22 and is printed on 100lb Stonehenge Paper with a deckle edge on the Top and Bottom. Signed and numberd. xx/60.
Marc Guertin Creative 