Materiality in work

Certain things in life make me happy. My jar of brushes would be one of them. Not to get caught up in owning a lot of things, I do admit my joy in collecting brushes, and colors, and tools to make art.

hand-colored lino print

What about you?

Moon calendars

Like the first photos of our blue planet from taken by the astronauts in space, a lunar calendar can make me feel small and also part of a bigger thing. There is the visual data to showing Time in it's best wonderful logic. You can't look at a lunar calendar without seeing the waves and undulations of nights. I highly recommend everyone consult one. For years I have bought and given these lunar calendars to others. This year I got two!!!

#lunarcalendar #time #visualdata

Wassaic Festival Tomorrow!

Nestled in the Oblong valley between the Connecticut state line and the NY Hudson River, the Wassaic Festival is happening tomorrow! It is a broad event created by a core group of artists. The work on display and presented in performances is playful, risky and witty. Building off a residency program, the Wassaic Project is a ten-year running institution with an investigative mission to explore new ways of seeing and thinking and to foster artists in their research. They have had year after year of maintaining freshness and quality.

Set in a casual country landscape, the Festival has food trucks, music, multi-experiential opportunities, lots of people, paintings, sculptures, and a gala atmosphere. It is free, fun and full of local color. The historical hamlet with the old Mill and Luther Barn are old-world early Americana. There is familiarity and comfort as the train rolls through town every hour. Dispelling the snobbery of much of the art world, firemen and country locals rub elbows with Yale grads, young poets and musicians. It is a seedbed for incredibly poignant contemporary statements. Don’t miss the artist talks scheduled every hour!

In the bucolic setting, experience the possibilities of performance, complete with literature in art, films, art in the stalls- not in pristine white galleries- and music that goes into the night. The place is bubbling with possibilities.  There is a generous and infectious attitude and the festival will be followed in the next few weeks with artist-taught youth camps, and more opportunities to share in the creative process. For more information visit www.wassaicproject.org

 Expect thousands. All are welcome. Art is fun and thought-provoking. It is free and family friendly, with kids art making opportunities. 

Cranach's enigmatic signatures

Lucas Cranach must have the coolest signature emblem ever! On January 6th, 1508 he was granted the rights to sign all his works with this seal by Frederick the Wise, his employer and the elector Prince of Saxony. A winged serpent with both a crown on its head and a jeweled ring in it's mouth was soon used on all Cranach workshop products, sometimes with the initials L and C. In 1537 the emblem changed. With the murder of his eldest son Hans, who was traveling to Bologna, Italy, like all good artists were expected to do as part of their studies, the heart broken father folded the wings and turned the serpent in another direction.

This is part of my Climbing up the Family Tree: Art and History Lessons for my Kids, "Searching for Cranach", a text booklet project. I plan to publish a 7-8 page book on Cranach, with a pocket sized original print in the back, by the end of this spring.

Student multi-color print assignment

a 4 color print by a senior

My level one Design and Composition class just worked on creating symmetrical designs of unique court cards. I gave the most point to the ones who could register the most colors. Everyone had to use at least two.

3 colors by a 10th grader

 3 colors by a ninth grader

three by a ninth grader

First they drew a half design and made their own carbon transfer paper to trace it twice onto a linoleum plate. Making sure that the two halves met somehow interestingly. Then they carved out the white, printed yellow. Carved out the yellow, printed red or blue, and repeated the process, printing black as the last color.

lots of diversity in designs

3 color print by Sophmore

2 color print by senior

They were required to start with as many prints as there were people in the class- so either 17 or 19. By the end- the challenges of registering each print in place made the edition size only 3 or 5.

10th grader

Sometimes you need 3D glasses to make it pop out at you!

3 color print by a freshman

3 ways Cranach solidified his career

two color linoleum print

 Lucas Cranach the elder (1472-1553) made his reputation by painting the nobility and court personalities into biblical or mythological stories. By this way he was granting the German princes of 1720 a lineage back to the beginning of the calendar. For a non-literate society, Cranach's paintings and prints really read as the truth.

first run

 He made his fortune painting barely veiled nude women for his male patrons.

Just resting on a decapitated head

And he garnered respect from the women by depicting them as victorious, saintly and beautiful.

Entrepreneurial Success with a Printing Press

Here is a story about the first German Bible:
Martin Luther's translation in 1522 was not the very first German bible, but it was the first that was translated from Greek and Hebrew original texts rather than from the Latin Vulgate, and it was translated into the common street language of Luther's time. So any German who could read in 1522, could study the word of God in their own language. This was a tremendous event, for it not only codified a national language, it personalized the relationship of the Word for the people.

Luther's Bible

 The first edition of the New Testament (3000 copies)published in September, sold out almost immediately. The December Testament sold out as well. By Luther's death 100,000 complete copies are sold...in a way unifying the country in that everyone was now reading and discussing the same text.

 Lucas Cranach's 21 wood cut illustrations of the Apocalypse were patented to be the only ones used in the first and subsequent editions. The art and translations were not without controversy. Accused of being a heretic, Luther, who was in hiding, hoped to gain the support of the people. He authorized Cranach to publish a pamphlet of full page illustrations showing the contrast between Christ and the Pope as a contrast between good and evil. The illustrations are wildly clear to anyone regardless of their ability to read. The pope is demonized. The Catholic church immediately retaliated with pamphlets attacking Luther as a 7 headed devil. Each side starts fervently publishing opinions on the matter.

The bible and subsequent printed pamphlets were a phenomenal success for Cranach's office. Between 1500 and 1530 more than 10,000 pamphlets with estimated 1000 copies per edition are printed in Germany... that's almost 20 pamphlets per literate German. And Cranach's press is responsible for creating 15% of all German books in the country!

Cranach's Wittenberg workshop and press

Check out a copy of "Luther's Bible" on Amazon--- collectible for around $725, or used $203.

Wittenberg Printmaking History

The home of Lucas Cranach and his workshop was a dream destination for me.

Wittenberg Castle, home of the patron of Cranach

my sister on the streets of Wittenberg

Map of the center of Wittenberg

The Elector of Saxony, Frederick the Wise, hired Lucas Cranach to be his court painter in the early 1500's. Cranach made his entry into that employment by preparing the hunt fields (trapping and sealing exits for the animals) and then painting very quickly the trophies and catches for all involved. He was very quick and able to convey a sense of abundance in his souvenir paintings so that he soon was in high demand by all the participants. That caught notice of the Elector. Once hired as the official court painter,  ( a position he kept through out the life of Frederick the Wise and his two successors), Cranach's responsibilities increased tremendously. Not only was he in charge of the castle decor, documenting historic events, embellishing and highlighting the nobility of the Saxon family by placing them in scenes of biblical and mythological settings, but he designed the fall and spring uniforms for the staff, created the themes for entertainment, decorated all horses, wagons, and squares for the pageants and tournaments, designed the wedding beds, painted alter pieces, murals and portraits, worked as ambassador and politician and printed pamphlets for both the Roman church authorities and, most famously, Martin Luther and the reformation.

 

 

Cranach was awarded a family seal of a winged serpent to show all the world how amazingly fast a painter, Pictorus Cellerimus, Cranach was!

 

 

The Cranach seal on his press

me inside Cranach printing office

The workshop is now an art school, exhibition space with an apparent resident printmaker. It was great to be able to stand in the space and smell the ink!

Night printing on the streets of Berlin

The sewer caps in Berlin have these marvelous images etched into them of the landmarks of the city, from the Reichstag to the Brandenburg gate. Our hip hotel, the 25 hour Bikini Berlin, was right across the street to the Kaiser Wilhem Kurch, which was one of the memorials on the street cap as well.

Tools needed-
 baby wipes, ink plate, water soluble ink, new German-bought hand roller, sheets of paper and a look out person.

new roller bought first day in Berlin

the Reichstag image

adding pressure and being nonchalant

My sister was a great look-out person, and even took these pictures. So ended my first day in Berlin, a fantastic city to play in.

Self-funded art retreat, here I come!!!

I am taking off for Berlin this afternoon. While there for the next week (my winter break from school) I will be researching history and my family tree.

While most of the week will be about my great great great great great great (x15) grandfather's printmaking workshop in the 1520's, some of it will also be spent on my great aunt's Helene's escape from a concentration camp in the 1940's for a book my sister Gwen is writing.
It is going to be wonderful working with and having the inspiration of my brilliant sister along side me.

A Gratitude Attitude

I am very grateful for the things and people I have in my life right now. When I take the time to list them, I shift my naturally pessimistic mind to a more grateful outlook.

letterpress

Having gratitude in your heart makes you feel better about life. It is an amazing practice. I have used it through divorce, raising teenagers, moving to a new city and more challenging times I can think of. It really works. If today everyone practices gratitude, we will shift the planet towards peace. I believe it. What are you thankful for?

Printshow assignment and call for art

Ian Strauss' print bed

This years Home Farm Artist Association is sponsoring a future print show (for next summer) for all members and interested guests. The assignment is to create and submit a print of any type for next summer's Horse Barn Loft Lounge exhibition. So far, everyone who has visited the farm between June and July has created one... it is mostly linoleum, but photographs or etchings can also be included.

Suzannah Strauss Blake, DVM at work

Sophie Strauss Jenkins

Ian printing

Dr. Alan Long's plates and print

So far participating artists have been: Sophie Strauss Jenkins, and her partner Joe, Ian Strauss, and his sister Natalie, Kate Long and her husband Alan, Suzannah Strauss Blake and her husband Michael, Tilly Strauss and her partner Michael Gellatly.

Kate Strauss Long's Objet d'art

Joe's prints in many colors

My metal type set with my linoleum plate

Consider this call:
Dear Home Farm Artist Associates and special guest,

It is with pleasure to note that the summer of 2018 has been one of multiple overlapping art residencies. There has been feverish activities in the fields and barns, including a creative upgrading of the gates, major uplifting and installation of posts in the cow barn, with a day’s workshop for Millerton youth in the sugar shack and a night photography attempt at capturing the elusive firefly dance. All overnight guest artists who visited the farm participated by creating a multiple print in the loft by carving linoleum plates and using water-based inks. At certain times in the months of June and July we had at least 3 artists working at once in the Horse Barn loft lounge. The studio space was even extended to a cabana post on the south east corner near the Pond d’Eva.
If you plan on stopping by the farm this fall you will find recycled linoleum plates, carvers, inks and brayers for your use. There is also an assortment of papers, but you might want to bring your own if you prefer your paper without mouse "signatures".
Your participation in this event will truly lift the quality of our planned exhibition to a new level.
The HFAA plans with high anticipation to share these works of art by mounting a 2019 summer/fall exhibition, (the opening and closing parties TBA).
The parameters of the submissions are that the work needs to be a multiple of at least 2, though artists proofs, mono prints, and photography are allowed.
The deadline for submitting a print would be by the end of the year.  Please let me know if we can expect to receive a submission from you.
We aspire to promote creative collaborations now and in the future seasons.
Thank you-
Tilly Strauss, humble associate curator
Fence Post Productions
If you are interested in participating please contact me at tillystudio@aol.com