The Mike Furness Art Blog

Monday, 22 November 2010

Objects of Desire Part 2

This project has been going well. It has steered me in various directions over the past few weeks but I'm very happy with the direction it's headed at this point. It may no longer end up consisting of three panels, I might just use two...or maybe just one, I'm really not sure. I'm still not too sure about a lot of things but I'm hoping it'll all reveal itself once I finish the large panel. Here is a work-in-progress photo of the large panel along with a few detail shots of some of the prints.

I'm planning to fill up quite a bit of the available space with more of the same prints. My plan, at this point, is to make it look somewhat chaotic, especially in the middle area.

Sunday, 14 November 2010

Objects of Desire

The current project I'm working on is based on the theme "Objects of Desire: Why We Want What We Want." I'm quite happy with the theme and knew right away what direction I was going to go with it, but I just didn't know how. But as of last week I have it figured out. I'm planning to incorporate printmaking into this project as I'm enjoying this lithography stuff quite a bit, so the vision I have for this project is mixed media on three panels. The first panel, which is 3'X2' will be mostly collage. The main panel, which is 4'X5' will contain a large litho print along with paint, ink and anything else I decide to throw at it. The third panel is the smallest at 1'X2' and it will be a litho print...I think. We'll see what happens, I'm sure this plan will change many times along the way.

Here are a couple shots of my workspace containing the large intimidating panels I built.

Printmaking

I've been messing around with a bit of printmaking this week. I've learned the process of two types of printmaking so far - lithography and etching. I'm quite fascinated by both but I think lithography is a better fit for the project I'm working on right now.

Here are a few prints from my first lithograph plate:

As far as etching goes, I am currently working on a plate. It is much more intricate work than the lithography. I haven't made any prints from this plate yet because I'm not quite done, but here are a couple photos of the plate.

The music I was listening to while doing these was the music that was being played in the printmaking studio, which was some Beck, a bit of Creedence Clearwater Revival, some Al Green and a lot of Neil Young. There's always some great tunes coming out of the printmaking studio.

Thursday, 4 November 2010

Free Canvases!

I just finished building my own canvas, it was a very satisfying experience. I built a 24"X36" canvas; I cut the wood, planed the inside edges, tacked the frame together, sanded the corners and stretched and stapled the canvas onto the frame. It feels good knowing how to build a proper stretched canvas, but what feels even better is knowing that I have access to an endless supply of FREE wood and canvas! Yep free, and apparently size and quantity are not an issue. I can build any size canvas I want and as many as I need, all I have to do is head into the Fine Art workshop and have at it.

The first of many...

Wednesday, 3 November 2010

Subconscious Drawing Part 2

Just a quick continuation from the last post...

Here is another piece from the subconscious drawing project, I'm pretty sure I'm finished with it at this point.

Detail view

Detail view

This was done at the same time as the first piece in the last post, which means I was listening to the same music, which was: various sounds being played by my instructor, and then for the detail work David Bowie, Pink Floyd and Gábor Szabó.

I have also finished the piece pictured below which I started last week while listening to Coltrane's "Giant Steps" and using wine, water, tea, coffee, soy sauce and bleach.