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Maryland Printmakers
(Archived version from June, 1998 - click here for current)
Featured Artist: John Blair Mitchell |
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Ik Manik Eb, John Blair Mitchell. Stone Lithograph |
I have just hung an exhibit of prints and drawings in the Hoffberger Gallery. It's always interesting to see one's recent efforts presented as a totality-a kind of sound-bite, in this case, a sight-bite, of effort and direction. As you look at the work, you say to yourself, "so this is where I've been going." As I appraised this show, I realized I've used most of my time doing lithographs and drawings. I spend quite a bit of time at the Metropolitan Museum of Art looking at its wonderful collection of Renaissance drawings. Such activity has to be inspirational and educational and so I prepared some Fabriano with a coat or two of lightly tinted gesso and used this as a surface of r pencil drawings. For final presentation the drawings were wheat-pasted on museum board. I selected the transfer method to make the majority of the lithographs. The technique is quite simple. I used litho crayons on tracing paper. The drawings are placed in a weak acid solution (30 drops of nitric to a quart of water, the slight acidity prevents the litho crayons from dissolving). The wet drawing is placed between blotters to remove excess moisture and then laid on a warm stone and run through the press under rather heavy pressure. Excellent transfers can be made using this method and better yet, the work can be followed up with any additional drawing or deletions felt necessary. One of the major advantages in using the transfer method is that it allows you to make rubbings on a variety of surfaces. This provides lots of textural variations in shading that really cannot be gotten otherwise. The pictorial structure of a number of the prints is influenced by Mayan art. I am very impressed by the forms used in the Borgia and Nuttall codices. These picture manuscripts contain design forms, which are wildly imaginative to our contemporary eyes and, for me, prove strongly stimulating for both drawing and printmaking. Many of the stone steles and glyphs of the Pre-Columbian Maya, even in photographs, also have a mysterious otherworldly quality worthy of serious viewing. I've found both The Ancient Maya by Morley/Brainerd, and A Forest of Kings, The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya by Schele/Freidel, helpful in studying these early people. Dr. Mitchell, professor emeritus of Towson University, presented "Recent Prints and Drawings" at the Hoffberger Gallery, Baltimore Hebrew Congregation through April 1998. He currently has a drypoint etching (originally done for a Maryland Printmakers portfolio of self portraits) in the all-Maryland juried show at the State House in Annapolis, "Works by Older Marylanders Exhibition," presented as part of the First Lady Frances Hughes Glendening's statewide arts initiative, through May 29, 1998. Opening dedication and reception for this show was Wednesday, May 13, from noon to 2 p.m. at the State House and Government House.
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