Re: ironing gum prints and other musings
Clay, Jack, Judy, Clay, it wasn't Marty McCutcheon by any chance who took to gum printing like a duck to water? Jack, this is too funny, below. Years ago I was into stained glass and I used to (and still do when thinking about it) grit my teeth when entering my studio. I took a quilting class at that time and gave up stained glass within a year because I could piece color together and handle it comfortably, squish it, touch it, bring it with me to restaurants, all kinds of benefits. Glass was too sharp and hard and scary. When taking my first and only pottery class I had to intellectually tell myself NOT to take up another medium because the tactile, mushy, hands-on, sensual experience of clay at the wheel was way too appealing. So I am 100% for hands-on. And which is why glassblowing and blacksmithing are never something I have thought of doing. BTW I look at your beautiful candleabras every day; they are sitting on my window sill right by my desk! That is what is so neat about art--the artist is attached. So you have little bits and pieces of you spread all over the country I'm sure! Judy, don't you feel special that you were Sookang's teacher?? Sarah Vowell graduated from here and I noticed faculty pretty proud who taught her. Chris As to the subject of why some students link up so tightly with a new media such as gum, I have always thought that different individuals find their niche (if they find it) based in part on the resistance of the medium. When I teach blacksmithing I am working with students trying to get a grasp of a very resistant material that is too hot to touch. Glassblowing and blacksmithing are basically the same.. the stuff must be hot to work it and as a result you are always separated from the material by intervening tools. The difference is the resistance of the material. You should see the frustration of a "natural potter" working with either media, they can't stand not being able to touch the stuff. Gum has way more resistance than most photo processes. It takes a long time to make a finished multi layer print and the steps are non-specific in their results (that is there are so many variables involved that results must be felt by intuition). Jack On 5/1/08, wcharmon@wt.net <wcharmon@wt.net> wrote:I think this is true with a lot of alt-processes, but particularly true
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