behind under the influence

when it came to thinking what to do for the exhibition, other than family and friends, the main person that kept coming to mind was panti and why? because she “never fails to inspire me with her presence, eloquence and wit. i’m in constant awe.”

i also wanted to get in other influences or artists i admire. i picked out a photograph of panti by fiona morgan with mouth open referencing edvard munch (also as a printing artist) and francis bacon. i wanted to do a relief print with lino using the reduction technique, said to have been promoted by pablo picasso as a serious medium for artist.

panti by fiona morgan

i reflected the photo so that when i drew onto the lino it would print similarly to the photo. i selected areas of light to dark and marked them out.

i cut away the lightest areas from the lino, leaving other areas untouched. i mixed ink to create the tone i wanted, registered my paper and printed the second colour (the first colour being the paper)

while prints were left to dry, i washed and dried lino. then prepared for the next print by cutting away the next lightest tone. when the first prints were dry, i mixed ink for my third colour and made the second print.

finally i cut away the rest of the lino that wasn’t my darkest colour and made final print. estimated time for the print was 12hrs excluding drying time.

bliss

guess who

bit of a teaser for my contribution to under the influence. it might not be hard to guess at this stage even though there’s still one more colour to go down, but when i printed the first colour i wasn’t so sure. it’s almost 3:30am just home from work and about to do the final cut on the block and print last colour. should be dry and ready to go to dublin tomorrow. wrecked!

Bliss

under the influence

usually me and ‘under the influence’ conjures up images of me being ossified drunk, general stubbornness or being found on the landing of a stairs wearing nothing but a jock strap. thankfully, some of those things are behind me.

in this instance it’s something completely different. as we all know, the dreaded recession has hit almost everything in this country, it really doesn’t discriminate. gcn (gay community news) unfortunately is no exception. as part of the gcn forever campaign, an exhibition curated by will st leger will open on the 5th march to raise much-needed funds. proceeds from sales go towards gcn. you can rsvp here.

i’m really honoured and excited to be part of this, especially as it’s for such a worthy cause. long live gcn. now, to get cracking.

under the influence