Be Still My Heart

Xenia Fedorchenko organized Be Still My Heart!, a themed portfolio for the 2011 SGC International conference.

Early this year thousands of blackbirds fell from the sky in Arkansas, with lightening the suspected cause. In For the Birds, blackbirds perch on heart rot and feed on damselflies, with a canary looking on.

Below are process photos showing how the print was made.

For the Birds, 2011

Studio set-up for working on soft ground drawing. The t-square acts as a bridge over the sensitive soft ground plate.

Complete soft ground drawing on tracing paper. The wood strips to the left and bottom act as registration and support for the bottom corner of the plate, while the mat board squares at the top keep the plate from shifting to the right.

Soft ground drawing in progress, with soft ground removed from the plate to expose the copper, transferred to the back of the tracing paper.

Detail of the complete soft ground drawing on the copper plate.

Soft ground state proof.

White ground painting.

White ground state proof.

To add more contrast, stiff litho ink is relief rolled onto the plate to stop out the light values for additional etching.

Several passes of litho ink add enough resist. The ink is allowed to dry overnight, with several areas stopped out before etching.

Red Tide

Photoshop sketch, soft ground drawing and state proof for the first print of a triptych.

Samhain: StoneMetal Press print exchange

Samhain celebrates the transition point between the light half of the year and the dark, held at the end of harvest. StoneMetal Press Printmaking Center in San Antonio is honoring this tradition with a print exchange.

Recently, my transition took place with a move to Los Angeles to teach printmaking and drawing at California State University Northridge. Living close to the ocean in a sprawling metropolis has peaked my interest in how water quality effects the smallest of creatures, traveling up the food chain to the largest.

Harmful algal blooms, sometimes referred to as red tides, are on the rise along populated coasts, in part from run off altering the water's nutrient balance and feeding the algae. In the Pacific, Pseudo-nitzschia produces domoic acid, a neurotoxin to humans and other mammals. Harmful algal blooms play a role in marine mortality events, including the 35 plus tons of suffocated sardines in King Harbor near Los Angeles this past March.

For information on the exchange or StoneMetal Press please visit www.stonemetalpress.com.

Red Tide, Relief print, 5 in. x 7 in., 2011