Miranda Grace Ballou | 6:39am, April 30, 2010.
Monthly Archives: April 2010
Glen Arbor Residency Studios
In May 2008 I received an Artist Residency at the Glen Arbor Art Association in Michigan. It was a great time and a really fantastic space. You can see a couple of the pieces I made there here and here. Maybe I’ll upload more work from that period of time in the future, but today I want to post a few images of my “studio” spaces there at Glen Arbor.
My apartment space. Did a lot of reflection after days of driving and drawing.
The Thorston Farm. Click for larger views. I had full solitary access to these buildings. Such an evocative and time-full environment.
And the lake, dunes, and trees were ever-present…
Orientation?
My most recent completed work is an oil painting, 48 inches in diameter, titled Certainty. Because of the nature of the ideas involved in this piece, it was constructed in a manner that did not allow for an “up” orientation. I actually never painted it from the same picture-plane position twice. I frequently moved my model and altered my position of observation with each session.
The work has any number of “correct” reading orientations, but I’d like to settle on one or find a way to spin the work slowly so that many possible positions are presented to different viewers. Click the image below to see a large GIF of the piece. The GIF shows 14 different “stations” of the painting (give it a few minutes to load fully). What’s the best way to view it?
Those Beginning Color Drawers…
I love this Group Project we do together. Click to enlarge.
It’s 8 feet tall by 6 feet wide (or thereabouts).
Noah’s Ark on I-70 in Missouri
Mezzotint Rocking Deck
I’ve been working on an apparatus to help me streamline and control my mezzotint copper plate preparation. In moving toward the incarnation you see in this post I built 3 other models, each one becoming more and more refined and tweaking elements that didn’t seem to work.
Ultimately what I wanted was a rotating deck that would keep the copper plate stable and offer ease of movement through the different angles one has to use to rock the plate properly.
The rocking deck would also need a secure place for the rocker itself, and a place to keep the blade protected when not in use. The sheath I built on the forward end of the deck holds the rocking blade without contacting the serrated edge of the blade at all.
Learn more about mezzotint here. See some of my mezzotint work here. Two really great mezzotint artists are Michelle Rozic and Stewart Duffin. Check them out.
New Lamentations Mezzotints on the Way
I’ve got a show coming up next Spring at Gordon College in Wenham, MA. Though I’ll be presenting 50 or more works, a good portion of them will consist of mezzotint prints. I’m well on my way to completing the group I want to exhibit; the prints will follow the imagery from Lamentations chapter 3, verses 1 – 20. Below I’m posting some shots of the newer plates – click the title to read the verse.
Francis Bacon
“How are you gonna remake that in another art?” – Francis Bacon, 1985.
“What modern man wants is sensation without the boredom of its conveyance.” – Bacon, quoting Valery, 1985.
“I’m optimistic about nothing. Absolutely nothing.” – Bacon, 1985.
“CHEEERIO!” – Bacon, to Melvyn Bragg, 1985.
The South Bank Show profile of Francis Bacon, filmed in 1985, is a classic document of 20th century art.
You should watch it right now.
eikonktizo 