August was about mixing it up in the studio by trying to introduce different ideas and mediums into my daily art practice.
The two main mediums that I have been exploring for the last month, paper-making and image transfer.
Both have a very different process then I am used to and both are very messy. The studio always looks trashed and I have found paper pulp everywhere!
The paper is composed of bills and junk-mail that I have acquired over the last month. It is shredded soaked and put through the blender until it is the texture of lumpy potatoes and then some of the remaining shredded paper is then mixed into the pulp. The mixture is drained pushed into a form and shaped on a screen and allowed to dry… this takes 1-2 days to completely dry.
The dried handmade paper is then lightly coated with a layer of acrylic gesso in the area I plan to put the transfer and allowed to dry.
The image is printed out on a laser printer on thin copier paper. Another layer of gesso is applied over the first and the printed image is placed face down and pressed into the wet gesso. This is allowed to sit for about 15-20 minutes and then a heat gun (aka hairdryer) it passed over it until the image paper is completely dry. The back of the copy paper is gently rubbed off with wet fingers as the image is slowly revealed.
Untitled
Image transfer on handmade paper
10in x 19.5in
2017
