Amanda Williams - Portfolio

Yours truly trundled of to the Midland Town Hall yesterday to be photographed for the local newspaper, alongside Puff the Magic Dragon, as part of the promotion for the Myths, Stories, Legends exhibition. The telephone interview turned out to be the easy bit.

Out of respect for the occasion I went to the trouble of makeup and hairspray as well as changing the paint stained rags for something clean and tidy (fashionable or elegant being somewhat beyond my meager dress sense or wardrobe). That, of course, was reason sufficient for the skies to open up to a downpour minutes before I HAD to get out of the car. I don’t mind stomping puddles at all and in fact, love walking in the rain, but making a dash for it in unaccustomed high heels was not in the same league.

Thus, if you notice a picture of a bedraggled rat (trying her best to smile) in the community newspaper it was me - looking worse than usual.

Hope you were having more fun than I was,
Amanda

My recent post getting all nostalgic about vintage Tetris reminded me that I was going to wax lyrical in a wistful response to James Gurney, of Dinotopia fame, over his coining the phrase “dead-tech”. You’re not following his blog? You should be.

James has begun a series of articles on old graphic arts equipment and the first thing he hauled out to show the young ‘uns was the waxer. Ah… it was enough to send me hunting through my own cupboards.

Pictured right, is what was my trusty forerunner to repositional spray adhesive, which was in turn the forerunner to Ventura Publisher for the bookish (remember that?) or Quark Xpress for the hip.

Said implement, was the means to making stuff stick temporarily. After rolling the reverse of a bromide to the sound of… dunno how to explain it… it would be pasted down with a good rub using the heel of the palm. Not in the right spot? It would be peeled up to be moved with the mere flick of a blade at the corner. The bit of bromide would then be lifted with the blade (so as not to touch the wax with ones fingers) and put lovingly in the new position. Or should this be the umpteenth round of changes: slammed down in disgust.

Oh, yes, the scent of molten wax wafting across a light-table…

Have a good laugh,
Amanda
(wondering if there’s a use for it in the studio…)

I just finished re-making Puff the Magic Dragon - not as a diptych this time - but a triptych in one frame. The experience of having the duo hung on opposite walls in an exhibition p’d me off so bad that I went back to Studio A and started over. After some thought, I made a new version that would make sure it couldn’t happen again. Well, not this side of having someone take to the work with a saw. Could happen…

It actually works out well because the Myths, Stories, Legends exhibition it’s headed for (opens this week) calls for up to 150 words to explain the thoughts behind the work. Puff is (in part) my response to:

Little Jackie Paper loved that rascal Puff,
And brought him strings and sealing wax and other fancy stuff.

Together they would travel on a boat with billowed sail,
Jackie kept a lookout perched on Puff’s gigantic tail.

A dragon lives forever but not so little boys,
Painted wings and giant rings make way for other toys.

Excerpts from “Puff, the Magic Dragon” (1959) a poem by Leonard Lipton

This new work, of the same name as the old one - oh, yes I can - is *giclée on canvas again but this time mounted on board rather than stretched. I made the frame too because I wanted to put the title on the work as is usual with printmaking. The style of the label, however, is more like that of works of old - copper set into the wood.

There were a couple of ways I could get the wording onto the copper - as printmakers do by etching with acid but chose instead to use ferric chloride as they do for making printed circuit boards. Why? Because I had the stuff laying around. (It’s a long story.)

The first step, however, was to get a mask or a resist onto the copper. When that part was done I liked it so much I left it be and didn’t bother etching it and that’s what you can see in the photo - toner on copper. The method used to transfer the resist, I’m thinking, might be of use to someone else out there in art land… because it too uses stuff you probably have lying around. (Disclaimer: I know this is good for ferric chloride, you can Google how, but don’t know if it works with acid)

Materials

Gloss inkjet photo paper
Laser printer or photocopier
An iron

Method

• Print the image onto the inkjet paper with the laser printer - yes you did read that right.
• Put the image with the image side face down onto the copper carefully aligned and well stuck down with masking tape so it can’t shift.
• Heat the iron on the hottest setting - no steam please! Take care at all times from here on because the copper will be HOT.
• Put the paper / copper / masking tape sandwich with the backside (blank side) of the paper facing you onto a block of wood or other heat proof surface and iron the back very, very thoroughly. And then iron it some more. And then iron it some more. At some point after ironing it very thoroughly you can peel up an edge of the masking tape and take a peek to see if the image has transferred to suit your taste (I was looking for scratched and less than perfect.)
• Peel off the masking tape and the paper. It will leave a layer of paper on the copper. Don’t pick at it!
• Drop the copper into a dish of water and leave it for a bit (10 minutes? 20 minutes? depends on the paper) until the paper goes really soft. You can pull it out every now and again and give it a gentle rub. It’ll eventually come off easily.
• Voilà! Or maybe not. If you don’t like it have another go - the toner will clean off easily with a plastic scratchy. (If you want to make minor repairs you can use a Dalo pen (about $6 from Dick Smith) to touch up the resist.) And if it’s all too hard you could just get a giclée printed onto aluminium which looks very nice and wouldn’t take all weekend experimenting…

Have fun,
Amanda

PS I’m going to give Type Tamer my giclée supplier a plug. (They’re in Malaga. That’s Malaga in the northern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia, not the one in Spain…) I will however declare that I do have an interest in the company but also state that the work stands for itself.

Do your remember Tetris? Well, if you were a sharp-eye’d Googler today you’d have noticed the special version of their logo celebrating 25 years of addictive block-plonking. It was an occasion fit to be reported by the UK Telegraph and WMBF News.com (among others).

Then, if you clicked on the Google logo, you got a list of lots of relevant places - including links to sites where one can play Tetris. That’s how I found that tetris.com have an online adaptation of the old ‘89 version… yep, monochrome - complete with the old music. Guess who didn’t get quite so much done in the studio today? (You didn’t need to know where to find it either, did you?)

My excuse is that stuff’s been a bit tough in Studio A these past weeks and more than a few games of my old favourite was somehow soothing this morning. And, when I interrupted my typing to go find the name of the music - so I could tell you that listening to bla bla bla was a lot better than humming the ancient campfire number “No body loves me, everybody hates me, I think I’ll go eat worms” (I told you it was bad) - I discovered, courtesy of Wikipedia, that more than a couple of people (who appear to know about these things) confirm that the mood-enhancement wasn’t all in my head… (so to speak).

According to intensive research from Dr. Michael Crane and Dr. Richard Haier, et al. prolonged Tetris activity can also lead to more efficient brain activity during play. When first playing Tetris, brain function and activity increases, along with greater cerebral energy consumption, measured by glucose metabolic rate. As Tetris players become more proficient, their brains show a reduced consumption of glucose, indicating more efficient brain activity for this task…

In January 2009, an Oxford University research group headed by Dr Emily Holmes reported in PLoS ONE that for healthy volunteers, playing ‘Tetris’ soon after viewing traumatic material in the laboratory reduced the number of flashbacks to those scenes in the following week. They believe that the computer game may disrupt the memories that are retained of the sights and sounds witnessed at the time, and which are later re-experienced through involuntary, distressing flashbacks of that moment. The group hope to develop this approach further as a potential intervention to reduce the flashbacks experienced in PTSD, but emphasized that these are only preliminary results.

So, there we go. Stressed out? Play Tetris.

Have fun,
Amanda

The last Art Safari was properly promoted and perpetrated as frottage involving the portrait of a sheep called Hamish. These works of art were achieved with assorted media including, but not limited too, charcoal, rocks, and newsprint as per Wikipedia’s definition:

In frottage the artist takes a pencil or other drawing tool and makes a “rubbing” over a textured surface. The drawing can be left as is or used as the basis for further refinement. While superficially similar to brass rubbing and other forms of rubbing intended to reproduce an existing subject

Unfortunately, to quote our esteemed leader:

It has been gleefully pointed out to me that frottage has a rather different meaning – at least outside the realms of art. I’ll let the gentle reader find it out for themselves. For the speculation about whether I am a New Zealander and consequently have odd affections for sheep – it is not true; although I would have to say that Hamish is a particularly lovable specimen of the breed. Given that the technique of frottage was popularised by the French Surrealists I suspect that it’s addtional meaning may have provided those artists some extra frisson. Jeff

I shall save the equally uninformed the trouble of looking it up, again resorting the ever informative Wikipedia:

In psychiatry, the clinical term frotteurism (no longer called frottage, although commonly called toucherism) refers to a specific paraphilia which involves the non-consensual rubbing against another person to achieve sexual arousal. The contact is usually with the hands or the genitals and may involve touching any part of the body including the genital area. …In common speech frotteurism is called groping…

What more can a girl do other than say “I’m of good English origin” and splutter “oh my…” accompanied by a red face. (Not to mention thoughts of trying it out with a beloved human being!)

Embarrassed,
Amanda

Hamish the sheep thoroughly enjoyed the attention of those Safarians brave enough to take on Jeff’s challenge to frottage a woolly portrait. At least we think Hamish enjoyed it. Or rather he enjoyed the extra rations of sheep cubes tossed in his general direction in hopes of getting him to stand still. An old poddy (a bottle-reared sheep) Hamish is thoroughly tame and didn’t mind the easels at all.

The results were as varied as the materials found to create texture - leaves, twigs, wood, rocks and simply the ground. We were all working on fairly light paper (newsprint, butchers paper and light cartridge) using as many types of media as could be found with a good rummage in the kit: charcoal, graphite and in the image below powdered pigment which was applied with brushes.

Hamish, charcoal and loose pigment on newsprint

Lots of fun,
Amanda

Come back… we’re making frottages that immortalise your portrait not wrapping you in newsprint and charcoal. There might even be a really big bucket of sheep cubes to help you stand still.

Yup, Art safari is heading out this way to take on one of Jeff’s crazy challenges…

Should be fun,
Amanda

Sunday last saw the usual bunch setting out on Art Safari to draw under the Narrows Bridge at the South Perth end. Yes, I did say under the bridge - it’s easy to get to, it’s shady and there’s even a carpark right next to it. I’m not in the photo because I’m behind the camera. To the right, however, there is evidence of my attendance in the form of coffee…

Why draw under a bridge? Lots of reasons: it’s different, it’s cool on a hot day, fresh air, the boats ranged from rowing tubs to fancy motor boats with many of their inhabitant taking the time wave but none able to gawk at our work, and very few walking gawkers who could. There’s also practice at handling perspective - I can hear you groaning from here - and maintain that’s exactly why you should have been with us. My own efforts (in spite of a distant history in drafting) were so cruddy I’m not showing you. My excuse was the stress of previous days meant all I could do was sit and stare, occasionally waving the charcoal at the paper. On which, the other reason to draw under a bridge - stress relief - thanks to both the peaceful surroundings and the congenial company.

And too looking right or left interesting compositions…

And the very, very best bit. Here we are, working well up the Swan River and just metres away the rise and fall of dolphins - mama and baby. What more can one ask for? Made my day and dropped my blood pressure to almost normal. Proof indeed that life can be good. Really good. Attempt at a photo by Jeff Bryant. In his words “Buggers kept ducking under the water - wouldn’t smile for the camera.”

Next week Art Safari are making the trip out here to attempt frottage of sheep. That is frottaged pictures of sheep - I really don’t think Hamish will stand still enough to be frottaged. Unless of course we provide a big bucket of pony cubes. Pony cubes are more expensive than sheep cubes - and Hamish reckons they taste better. Also there will be no tours of the studio or house because both are in a horrible state of decay (see comments on stress…) so everyone will have to make do with an overgrown garden, a rusty old bobcat abandoned in disgust in long grass, chooks, ducks, sheep, the neighbours’ cattle and maybe horses if the one’s that live on the property at the bottom of our hill are out grazing.

G’day Hamish… (bribed him with pony cubes to get him to stand still for the camera!)

Have fun.
Amanda

Sorry about the late notice (I just knew I’d lost a list in the madness of the past week). Tonight is the opening night of the 24th Western Australian Printmedia Awards 2009 (phew…). It’s at the Moores Gallery, 46 Henry Street Fremantle and starts at 6.30pm.

I won’t be there cos I worked through the night last night after a week of the same. I got 8 hours sleep total over 3 days… I’m not going into the saga except to say it wasn’t my fault - the logs were large and frequent.

All was overcome and, I gotta say, I’m fairly pleased with the result but at the same have mixed feelings. Not new thoughts but reinforced this morning (tired and miserable) by a growing disillusion. Working so hard on stuff like this means I’m not in my studio making art; I’m submitting work that’s not really suitable for this event because I don’t have time to get something else on the press; and, thus, know up front that I’m not even in the running for the kudos. I think we have a problem Scotty.

Right now, I’m going up the hill to close (slam) the studio door behind me and try to work off the funk. Paint, play with the clay or just clean up the mess. Printmaking? Not very likely.

Amanda

PS For what it’s worth, this pair are what I entered - renamed Stockyard 1 and Stockyard 2. They were, in fact, a diptych but had to be submitted as individual pieces because of the size limitation. It’s a hybrid work - digital imagery but using an etching press to transfer the image to plywood. 600 x 900mm.

As a pair the work was called Puff the Magic Dragon. The image and the title look innocent enough for those who can’t face digging any deeper… The ambiguity intentional. The stockyard is significant. It’s a comment on lots of things. Made me cry after I realised what I’d made. But art is like that.

Out of character for the blog? Nah, this lady is making art.

You-Tube (grrr…) won’t let me embed Susan Boyles amazing performance here, so you’ll have to go look.

All I’ll say is: what have you done today?

Have a good one
Amanda

(Photo of Susan from USmagazine.com. Many thanks.)