For example, I’m sitting here this evening with a lovely little ceramic cup on my desk. Usually this is the little cup of water on my bedside table when I go to sleep, and sometimes I just like to pick it up and hold it a little. It’s always cool and fits right there in the palm of my hand. You can tell it was made by a pair of hands to be held by other hands.
I remember being quite young and opening a box of paint tubes, and my older brother told me that the paint was made by machines and put in the tubes by machines, and probably put in the box by machines too. He said my hands were probably the first human hands to touch those tubes of paint. I remember being pretty amazed at the time, but having grown up with that sort of stuff, things made by people and touched by hands have a whole new feeling about them now.
This particular cup was made by Sunshine GB March, and you can read here blog, Ceramirama, here. I met Sunshine when she politely put up with me interrupting her working with Dainica Headland out at the Parks Community Center to ask about their printmaking studio. We all chatted for a while and I really dug her work, I left a few hours later and then kept seeing it all over the place. Most recently she has a lovely piece in the Prospect Self Portrait Prize.
Finally, last month I managed to get some of her work for myself at the Adelaide College of the Arts Art Bazaar, which is the school’s annual market for artists. Two little ceramic cups and a saucer for myself, and a taller glass for the office Kris Kringle.

I’m pretty damn pleased with them, and I really do encourage everyone just to hold something made by hands. Urban Cow, The T’Arts Collective and Pepper Street Arts Centre are good places to start. And keep an eye out for Sunshine’s work.

First, books!
These are the books I found useful over the course of the project. Some are more useful than others of course, but all of them are worth having on hand. I have a horrible habit of not being satisfied with having a library copy of a book because then I can’t make notes in the margins, which is why I buy them on Abebooks.

Dye Transfer Made Easy, by Mindy Beede
Clearly this is a book on Dye Transfer, but the section on making Colour separations direct from 35mm Colour slides is really well illustrated and explained. The DIY pin registration system they outline could also be of use. A lot of Dye Transfer literature could be applicable to certain parts of this process, so keep that in mind.

The Color Print Book: A Survey of Contemporary Color Photographic Print Making Methods for the Creative Photographer, by Arnold Gassan
Not tremendously useful technically, but very very interesting and handy to lend context to the work you’re doing.

Photogravure: An Archaeological Research, by Jan Pettersson
This is your key text. Pettersson deals with Copperplate Photogravure in his colour photogravure work, but most aspects are easily transferable to photopolymer materials if you’re not set up for copper. As far as I know this is the only contemporary work published on Colour Photogravure. See here for ordering details.

Materials:
Toyobo Printight 73GR (thin) This is your photopolymer plate material. The Toyobo stuff gave me the best tonal range of all of the materials I tried, and it seems to be widely recommended for this purpose. (Available from Melbourne Etching Supplies)

Process Inks
You’ll need a Cyan, a yellow, and a Magenta etching ink. These are sometimes called Process colours as a carryover from the printing industry. Caligo make a wonderful range of water-washup process colours which worked absolutely perfectly for me.
Process Cyan (BL 24911)
Process Magenta (RD 63601)
Process Yellow (YL 91779)

They’re available in Australia from Neil Wallace.

Etching Paper
This is of course vital. I use Magnani because it’s what I learned printmaking with, but nearly any etching paper will be appropriate to begin your experimentation with. Magnani Australia distribute a wonderful range.

Filters:
If you’re making colour separations manually, either in camera or in the darkroom, you’ll need a set of colour separation filters to do the deed. Kodak made these in their Wratten filter line, but everything indicates that they’re no long manufactured. eBay is your best bet.
I used the following filters:
Wratten #25 – Red
Wratten #47 – Blue (Alternatively, 47b)
Wratten #58 – Green

Handy things to have
A Kodak Colour Separation Guide and Greyscale (Product code #Q-13). These are available from Freestyle Photo, and it’s endlessly helpful as a test target.

An Illumitrans Slide Copier, if you can get access to one, is really handy to have for making colour separations directly from slides onto black and white film.

A densitometer is necessary if you plan to get serious about this and get really accurate colours. I never had the chance to use mine appropriately.

Equipment

You’re going to need an etching press, and preferably an etching studio.

I was lucky enough to have access to the South Australian School of Art’s rather lovely print studios.

You’ll need an ultraviolet exposure unit, and preferably a calibrated one. By this I mean, the unit measures the UV output of the bulb and adjusts the exposure time accordingly, so you know # units of exposure always equals # units of exposure. Bulb warm up and cooldown can be a real problem. Again, I was lucky enough to get to use the Photography department’s very nice exposure unit.

You’ll need to know how to print. If you’re coming to this medium without any print experience I recommend you have a printmaking instruct you on the proper methods. Paper handling, inking and printing procedures are really things you need to learn to do properly to avoid harming yourself or your equipment. The instruction of an accomplished printmaker is invaluable, as these are all things that are quite difficult to learn from books alone.

A brisk rundown of the printing process.

First, you make your colour separations. You then output these separations onto a transparent material, either digitally onto a medium like Pictorico, or in the darkroom by enlarging your separation negatives onto Ortho-Litho film. I used Arista Ortho film, which quite annoyingly has now been discontinued.

From these transparencies we make our plates. This involves contact the transparency onto the plate material under pressure, such as from heavy glass or a vacuum frame, and then exposing to UV light. How much UV light is up to a lot of testing, but since everybody’s setup differs it’s useless for me to tell you what my exposures were. “Enough” is about as much as you can say.
You also expose an aquatint screen in contact with your plate in order to give it the grain to hold your ink.
The plates are then developed and hardened as per normal. Photopolymer material is usually simply developed in warm water, which is quite handy.

So, we have our plates! Then we have to ink the plates up. You’re gonna want a big box of disposable gloves for this part. I found cheap plastic palette knives to be really useful for inking up my plates, and I used them more than the specially designed ink wipers I purchased for the job. Figures.

Ink up all 3 plates at once, and don’t dilly-dally, as you don’t want the ink to begin to dry on your plates. How much time this takes depends on the ink you use, but so long as you dont step out for lunch half way through you should be fine.

At the end of this inking process you’ll have your separate plates sitting all nicely lined up and ready to print.

Now, the printing.

Layer one, our yellow plate. Looks pretty boring.

On goes the Magenta! And it looks like…uhh. Orange. Hey, did we do this right?

On goes our Cyan, and it all comes together. It’s like this every time, everything looks pretty rubbish until you get to the Cyan layer and then things just click.

It’s worth mentioning that the printing order always goes Yellow, Magenta and Cyan. I tried printing in different combinations for kicks, and while you do get some interesting results they’re always muddy in comparison. So, keep this in mind.

That’s the basic rundown. I only had 6 months to explore this, so there’s lots more to be done, but I hope this makes you curious enough to explore further. I’ll post more when I can.

These were the closing words of a presentation on the first day of my Skills for Creative Events intensive earlier this year. And, they’re perfectly accurate, in context. In putting on exhibitions and shows, you’re entertaining people – you’re not curing cancer, you’re not performing heart surgery, you’re not designing aeroplanes. If we screw up nobody dies.
We’re just here to show people a good time. So don’t worry.

Of course, if this rubs you up the wrong way, then perhaps you’re not content to just entertain. And don’t start thinking that you’re work is important because it raises awareness or makes people think or blah blah blah. If you’re not happy with being passive then you need to go out and do things.

“…it’s about utilising the Language of Power.”

And the amazing Elizabeth Emery once referred a wonderful statement too me too,

“No two words mean the same thing. Ever.”

Jared was talking about Richard Bell’s Theorem, and Lizzy was speaking in the context of Art History and Theory writing, but they’ve stuck with me.

And last night, at one of Craftsouth’s INFORM Sessions on accounting for artists, Brian Tucker made the point that while the language the taxation office uses to speak about tax is complex, the concepts behind it are relatively simple. Language is the biggest hurdle, as you need to be able to say the words they’re expecting to hear.

This extends to a lot of things in art. If you want to be able to get things done, you need to be able to speak the appropriate language or else you wont be taken seriously. Or worse, you could be completely ignored. This is where organisations like Renew Adelaide come into play, becoming the mediator between the artist and the structure that exists above all of us in the form of Government (or, if you’re so inclined, the man).

Volunteer at Art Galleries.
Help hang some exhibitions.
Help paint some white walls white.
Take a 6 week Book-keeping course at TAFE.
Read the National Cultural Policy Discussion Paper
Tell your friends.

Utilise the Language of power.
It’s the only way we’re ever going to change anything.

I decided during my second year at art school that I was going to try to stay with “this whole art thing”, because it’s honestly what I love to do. My parents were always supportive of doing what you love, and sticking by that didn’t phase me. A lot of people don’t come from such a supportive background. So I had enough time to think about what I might do after I had graduated. I eventually decided I would take at least a year off before pursuing Honors and further study, time to actually make art and develop a direction, and I also decided I might return to TAFE and finish a Diploma of Business I had started way back in 2007. Hey, having some business skills in this industry can’t hurt, right?

That’s what I’m working on today, my homework for Marketing 1A. This officially feels like enemy territory, and is as far away from an Art History and Theory lecture as you can get. There’s certainly a lot less Marxism.
I don’t mind the business stuff because I know that if I can find an angle where I can apply it to art then it becomes interesting, but at the same time it’s a really strange insight into what a whole bunch of people spend their days worrying about. If there are this many people out there setting SMART Goals, worrying about Total Quality Management, and whatever the hell Kaisen is, then the fact I want to spend my days etching photos into copper and writing thousands of words about why is just as justified.

It’s not that crazy to want to make things.

Learning Curves developed as a result of a survey of the many artists associated with Pepper Street Arts Centre through our exhibition program, gift shop and art classes. From the results of this survey we identified there was a desire from our new, emerging and returning artists to learn from the experience of our experienced artists. Today we will hear from five artists who have vastly differing art experiences and stories but who have all had long and generous relationships with the Pepper Street Arts Centre.

Learning Curves, 1:30PM, 13th of August 2011.

Artists:
Carolanne Wasley
Arthur Phillips
Margarey Tuckey
Tamara Hahn
Bev Bills

It was sort of something between a professional development seminar and a nice chat, with a good spread of tea and biscuits. Not at all a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Pepper Street is a place I consistently enjoy going to, simply because the people there like art and that’s it. No complications, art is good and we’re pro art. It’s honestly refreshing, and if you’re ever in Burnside I highly recommend that you pay them a visit. I happen to be something of a fan of Tamara Hahn’s work too, so that was some extra incentive to go.

They did well to try to get a mix of different artists with different practices, but I’m not sure that each artist necessarily knew what they were there to talk about. There was some good advice given in small doses, but overall each artist generally just told their story of how they make art and why, with some hints on how to spin a dollar out of it from time to time.

Carolanne Wasley opened by defining exactly what art was, which is always a quick way to rile up the contemporary artists. Just so you know, Fine Art is Painting, Sculpture and Printmaking. Everything else, like ceramics and textiles, is craft. Photography wasn’t mentioned. I was pleased that she didn’t refer to Craft as anything lesser though, so that’s a good precedent to set. Looking at her profile, Wasley comes from a more traditional basis in art, with a focus on design and production of work in a very technically exact and methodical fashion. Given that background, she did give some sound advice in regards to establishing a product range and working out a standard principle for pricing your work as a production ceramicist.

Arthur Phillips was a little freer flowing in his advice, as a painter who doesn’t work in the manner of developing a range of small saleable products that can be consistently produced. Arthur teaches painting and maintains a painting practice, working and exhibiting, and his advice was largely to enter everything you could – rotary shows being a key aspect of this. He also pointed out that a few decades ago, galleries used to seek you out, but now you have to see them out and make your presence known. He made a strong point for actually enjoying the physical act of what you’re doing, and said the reason he still paints is because he just loves to do it. In regards to pricing work, he said, “Don’t overprice and don’t underprice”, and left it at that.

Margaret Tuckey is a name I had heard before, a lecturer at TAFE in the Viz Arts program at O’Halloran Hill. According to her profile in the handouts, Margaret has, “a particular passion for large contemporary flowers and still life works in watercolour.” As an arts educator, again her advice was similar to Carolanne’s, and shared a particular design and technical focus. One of the interesting things she did point out was that art school is only an introduction; you really need to spend a few years perfecting the things you were introduced to. 3 years is enough time to get an introduction to a lot of different techniques, but certainly not to master them. She was very much in favour of taking a proactive stance in art – attending as many workshops as you can, taking art trips, stretching your own canvases, and so on. I like that.

Tamara Hahn was the only artist on the panel I had known as having a contemporary practice, having come from the South Australian School of Art and selling work at the Jam Factory. She had the most interesting experience to speak about, and touched on common issues like finding spaces to exhibit, approaching galleries, and getting grants. Tamara also reaffirmed the idea of creating a strong product line that you know sells in order to support your less commercial art practice.

Bev Bills tidied off the discussion nicely and also gave some good tips in regards to volunteering, groups to get involved with and how to get public liability insurance. Of all of the participants, Bev probably gave the most down to earth, practical advice.

Overall, the message of the panel seemed to simply reaffirm the idea that if you do it for long enough, you’re an artist. There was limited practical advice given of how to transition from one of “us” to one of “them”, a saleable artist. The advice that was given seemed to focus on lifelong learning, passion and devotion to your medium, and going out and doing things. That’s good to keep in mind, but if you came to the seminar looking for advice you would probably be put off by the lack of contemporary ideas and direct discussion about what it’s like to be an artist. While it’s worthwhile to listen to other people’s experiences and distill what might be applicable to your own situation, sometimes you just want them to tell you what traps they encountered, what’s worth exploring further and what you should avoid.

The content could of course just be a reflection of the audience this particular panel was aimed at. Overall the audience was older and more focused on traditional ideas of fine art. There were only two other people my age who attended the discussion apart from myself and they left during the intermission, before Tamara Hahn spoke.

So, overall an interesting panel discussion but I think a more contemporary spread of practicing artists next time would be of benefit in bringing about a dialogue more engaging to younger artists.

A bunch of rad people – Courtney Bignell, Aurelia Carbone, Sundari Carmody and Alice Jane – are trying to scrape together enough money to go to the 2011 PIP Festival in China. Their work, along with that of James Tylor and CJ Taylor, was selected to be shown, and of course they’d like to attend. If you can spare a little money, pitch in.

They also have some incentives – prints for the price of a donation. These are from established names like Mark Kimber, Bronek Kozka and Deborah Paauwe – so well worth a little investment.

“The Best Years of our Lives”, Bronek Kozka (2008) – just one of the works available for the cost of a $1000 donation.

(a bargain)

Go look!

Went along to my first meeting last night, just a bunch of people who like analogue photography. If you’re interested get in touch via the email listed and come along to the next meeting – second monday night of every month. Also a great way to soak up some more knowledge if you’re keen.

James (You can see more of his work here) is a brilliant technician and also one hell of a photographer. In the interest of keeping records he’s started a technical blog to keep track of all of the stuff he’s been working with. His work in such a wide variety of alternative photographic processes is a pretty big undertaking and sure to be of interest to other practitioners – and most importantly, the photographs he prints with these processes are just brilliant. A rare case of a very strong commitment to seeing being met with a very strong technical mind.