Self Portrait With Left Hand. Hard ground etching, aquatint, dry point, a la poupee. April/May 2012. Edition of 7, 9”x11”.
Jordaan on the Porch After Stay True Paltz. Hard ground etching, soft ground etching, aquatint, drypoint. Spring 2012. Edition of 8, 22”x30”.
Psychic Drawings. Hard ground etching, aquatint. Spring 2012. Edition of 8, 22”x30”.
Submission Request!!!
For my graduate thesis in printmaking I am putting out a call for writing entries. Basically what I’m addressing is sexuality and subjectivity through a feminist lens, so I’m asking women (cis or otherwise!) of all races, backgrounds, orientations, etc, to submit a piece of writing describing either a particular instance or general experience where they’ve either felt empowered or disempowered sexually. Submissions can be long or short, thought-out or stream of consciousness, whatever the writer feels like doing! The submissions will all be kept anonymous and the writings will ultimately be displayed as a group in part of my show as an installation, some parts readable, some parts not. If you feel so inclined, hand written (scanned) images would be fantastic, typed submissions are great too! If you are going to scan a written piece please try to make it as high quality as possible so that I am able to print it at a good resolution (300 dpi is good).
Thanks! Email submissions to marenamitchell@yahoo.com
This is what drawing in 3D looks like.
Hell.
Anyway, that little pincushion is going to be the first object I ever 3D print, should be done by Friday. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.
I’ve also been smacked with the hand of inspiration, thesis is going to be set in motion. Hopefully with an inclusive participation aspect— I gotta gel out the deets on that.
Stay posted!
Self Portrait In Woodcut. Oil-based woodcut reduction. April 2012. Edition of 8.
This is the same image as the wooden plate piece, which is much larger. After being hounded by every printmaker that I came into contact with for not printing it, I decided to compromise and make a smaller version to be printed. It also helped fulfill an assignment I had forgotten to do last semester, two birds with one stone.
The Great Phil Sanders came to the studio today, my initial plan was to just apologize to him for being a horrible etcher, but as it turns out (and I already knew this), PHIL IS RAD.
He gave everyone some really great feedback and made me feel not-so-terrible about etching, which let me tell you, is a feat in and of itself.
And more good news, I found my memory card! This means I’ve got a handful of fun photos for you all, because I know how much you all care.
For example:
These photos are of an etching I’ve been working on since February. It’s 12” x 18”, which if you know anything about etchings, means fucking huge. Especially if it’s your (my) first time.
Here’s the first proof I pulled back in mid-February on top of the proof I pulled about a week ago:
There are about six more steps between the two, but it’s really satisfying to see the progression, especially considering how frustrated I’ve been feeling.
I need to get back on the writing train. This semester has been so hectic that I haven’t devoted enough time to both reading AND writing. I was beating myself up over it but I’ve decided that I’m just going to let it all build up and then explode when summer comes.
Next semester I’ll be taking a Women’s Studies class and my hope is that it will give me the final swift kick I need to really start addressing things in my writing and in my work. And hopefully by the time I get to fall semester I won’t be in desperate need of that swift kick because I’ll already be pushing myself. And hopefully once I’m writing again I can get a little section of it up here for your reading pleasure, and then hopefully get another volume of zines published!
Big plans.
We’ll see, right now it’s about putting my head down and plowing through this semester and all these etchings that need to get done.
One month left!
WELP, I’ve been printing my ass off. Today I realized I have three weeks to do the following:
-Finish a 12” x 18” plate, print 8 of them
-START a 12” x 18” plate, print 8 of them
-Print a two-plate etching for Friday so Phil Sanders (the most knowledgable printmaker in the world, literally) can tell me how horrible it is
-Think of an exchange print to do for my final etching project
-Do TWO more projects using Rhino 3d
-Register for classes/get independent studies set up and approved
-Get my car fixed
-Print a woodcut (edition of 9) that was due last semester
Luckily, I finished that last one today, I managed to put out three reduction layers in 4 hours, so I feel pretty alright. 
This week I also managed to lose my flash drive AND my memory card, luckily there wasn’t anything too important on them. My seminar professor (crit theory virtuoso/god of all things intellectual and awesome) gave me an “A+++” on my feminism presentation and a B+ on my first draft of my critical theory paper, “Feminist Subjectivity in the Postmodern”…
SO in short, I’m feelin’ crazy overwhelmed but also pretty awesome. There are a lot of awesome things happening in the midst of the insanity. I’m taking a class with one of the best professors I’ve ever had in my life called Women, Love, and Sex; it’s going to absolutely ruuule. And I’ve got some rad ideas kickin’ around for new work and new zines and some writing in general.
Thesis is fast approaching and I want it to actually look like I’ve dedicated a year of my life to it.
With that I should probably get of Tumblr. More photos soon (once I get another memory card)!
Self Portrait in Wood. 1/2” Pine Plywood, Gouache, India Ink. 32” x 40”. March 2012.
Tonight was open studios. Aside from showing off our work, I decided that the Print department needed to have stronger representation.
To accomplish this I went downstairs to the Sculpture department and engaged in a hot dog eating contest.
Those boys didn’t stand a chance.
Ten hot dogs later, I am sitting here with a distended stomach, a banner declaring my awesomeness hanging in the critique room, and this photograph of my golden (spray painted) hot dog trophies.
I threw them off the FAB balcony immediately.
That was my evening, now I need to shower. I am hot dog drunk.
Hot Future. CMYK Silkscreen. March 2012. For print exchange: 2012, The Year of the Apocalypse. Edition of 21.
On the year anniversary of Paul Newman dying my friends and I decided to hold a vigil and try to contact him via a home made Ouija board, which obviously has more power than store-bought ones. We didn’t get to Paul, we decided he’d already passed on to somewhere out of our reach. We did, however, get Michael Jackson and he told us he was in some weird waiting place, headed for “HF”, after we asked him to spell it out, he told us, ”Hot Future”. We decided that’s probably just his new hit single, among the dead of course.
And that’s my friend Matt in a dress and donkey mask playing an organ. If the world ends I think the person doing it will look something like this.
Soft Ground Pencil. Soft ground etching. February 2012. Edition of 5.
Last night I told someone they were a modernist as an insult.
I’m shaking my fist so hard at grad art seminar.
