Talking Chimp

This chimp's talking, and he's talking chimp.




You want the first etching in the edition of 10? Here's where you can bid on it.

Talking Monkey, continued.

Here's the current proof of the talking monkey etching. You may have noticed the first proof here.

It's probably a few aquatints and a good bit of scraping away from being done.

If you want it, here it is. . .

As promised a post or two ago, you can surf to this auction to pick up Crow IV. The auction finishes up next Sunday.

Monkey Says

Here's the first scratchings towards another image with a speech balloon. This one's an etching.

Week 4 of the Zero Sum auctions in the Blogger Show

Saturday's opening reception for The Blogger Show at the Digging Pitt Gallery here in Pittsburgh was a lot of fun. It was great meeting a few of you there!

The Zero Sum #33 auction, ending Thursday night, 12/13, at 10 pm Eastern time.

The Zero Sum #34 auction, ending Friday night, 12/14, at 10 pm Eastern time.

The Zero Sum #27 auction, ending Saturday night, 12/15, at 10 pm Eastern time.

The Zero Sum #35 auction, ending Sunday night, 12/16, at 10 pm Eastern time.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. . .

Zero Sum #20

The four Zero Sum auctions that are currently up and running are Zero Sum #15, ending on Thanksgiving (bad planning on my part there), Zero Sum #17, ending Friday, 11/23, Zero Sum #20, the etching you see here, finishing Saturday, 11/24, and Zero Sum #21, another etching, ending Sunday, 11/25.

Look for an auction ending every Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night at 10 p.m. from now until mid-January, with the exception of a week off for Christmas, as part of The Blogger Show at Digging Pitt Gallery, here in Pittsburgh PA.

Zero Sum #25

Zero Sum #25, taking advantage of that new moon etching of mine. It goes up for auction later tonight. Visit the Zero Sum Art Project blog for all of the details.

Teasers

If you were to dig around in my studio, shoving aside the empty Coke cans, here's a few bits and pieces that might catch your eye:


This is a detail from a linocut I just printed. The linocut includes four rats, four roaches, and seven flies, along with some other non-vermin imagery. It's part of a broadside I just finished, working with a poem by Ron Offen, to be published later this year by Pygmy Forest Press. When the broadside comes out, I'll let you see the entire print.


I've got a few etchings of the moon scattered about. These are going to be used as collage material, along with the stack of


cyanotypes that I just received in the mail. These were made from transparencies of photographs I made from my Box. All of the collage material will end up in pieces for the Zero Sum Art Project.


Speaking of the Zero Sum Art Project, the animation above is a record of the making of Zero Sum #24, which will be on display at the Agni Gallery in New York City during the month of November, as part of The Blogger Show. After it's stay in NYC, it will be auctioned off on eBay, consistent with the ZSAP rules.

I'm telling you, I'm up to my elbows in here. Lots of stuff kicking around. . .

Animated Etching Proofs

One of the many nice things about making an etching is that you are left with a trail of proofs, that document what you were thinking and the decisions you made along the way. I'm a firm believer in the thinking-while-making school of art - I do my best thinking when I'm pushing the materials around. So I like to jump into a plate, get something on it, scrape it off, put something else on, until things start to come together. And this animation gives a little sense of how that process looks.

The final image is a collage, Zero Sum #23


which is the most recent finished work in the Zero Sum Art Project. If you would like to see a larger image, visit the auction on eBay.


After I finished that Zero Sum #23, I went back to work on the etching plate. I decided I liked the vulture a lot, so I scraped out one of the bird heads and socked in a nice black aquatint, from which I will carve a vulture. We'll see what happens. . . if nothing else, a lot more proofs, no doubt.

Zero Sum #22

Zero Sum #22

Zero Sum #22, another original etching, is the latest piece in the Zero Sum Art Project that is up for auction on eBay.

This is the second etching I've made using solarplate, and I'm really enjoying the process. The major drawback is that the plates can't be reworked like a traditional etching plate, which limits the amount of plate history in the image, which is one of the major attractions of etching for me. So I imagine that I will use this technique primarily to add photographic material to more complex collage/multiple printing element images in the future. But I am really happy with my first couple of plates as stand-alone pieces!

Zero Sum #21

Zero Sum #21
intaglio and chine-colle
8" x 10" image area

Here's Zero Sum #21. It's currently for sale on ebay, with the strangely low opening bid of $19.80. If you're new to the Zero Sum Art Project, and wonder how I got that odd opening bid, visit the Zero Sum Art Project blog for more information. Or you could visit the ZSAP gallery on the Fiji Island Mermaid Press website.

Speaking of the FIMP website, I recently updated the list of all of the tiny books published by FIMP since 2000. 82 of 'em! If you would like to receive the next 12, you should consider a subscription to the FIMP Book of the Month club.

Circling

Circling, linocut, 2.5" x 3"
That little linocut is one piece of a jigsaw puzzle I'm putting together that will ultimately be a broadside featuring a poem by Ron Offen, to be published by Pygmy Forest Press. Stay tuned for more details as they happen. . .


And if you haven't been over to the Zero Sum Art Project blog lately, you might have missed Zero Sum #20 - which, by the way, you could purchase if you visit this auction before Sunday night.