Jennifer Zalewski Studio

I’ve been having a lot of fun delving back into Monotypes lately. Previously, I was experimenting only with subtractive monotypes but after getting 2 great DVDs the past year (SAFER PRINTMAKING WITH AKUA WATER-BASED INKS and PAINTERLY PRINTMAKING WITH MONOTYPES) I decided to try additives. It’s been…messy… but so fun! I find I’m able to be as expressive and energetic in this technique as I’ve wanted to be for years but couldn’t achieve in other mediums (media?).

I decided to take one of my wrinkly Jack & Caterpillar lithographs from a couple weeks ago and use it for my first additive monotype. I taped it under a piece of plexiglass and hinged a piece of paper across the top.

I first decided to paint Jack’s base coat–using the taped lithograph (underneath the plexi plate) as my guide….

That hinged paper across the top? I flipped it over the wet ink and used a marble rolling pin to press the wet ink onto the paper. I do have a couple printing presses here but unfortunately their beds were too small for my plexiglass!!

The marble rolling pin is from a local restaurant supply company and only cost about $12! It’s a wonderful, cheap alternative to a press.  A tip I learned from one of the monotype DVDs… use a low table so that you can lean all your weight onto the rolling pin, giving you a better transfer. I used a coffee table that’s been storing my CDs. Worked great!

Here it is (sorry for the poor color… it gets dark soooo early now! By the time I get home, feed and walk the dogs and get started working… it’s black outside and I have wicked poor lighting in the studio. Must fix.)…

As you can see, there’s still ink left on the plate so I put another piece of paper on the plexiglass and burnish it with the pin again. This gives me one more image, much fainter, that is called a “ghost print.” Here’s the first pull and the ghost pull side by side…

Now I just start adding more colors to the plexi plate. I suppose I could have painted all the colors at once but I felt more “in control” doing a few at a time. First order of business was Jack’s brindling. Eek. Why did I get a brindle dog again, they are so hard to draw and paint LOL!!!!! And sadly, my Akua Ink set didn’t include any browns besides ochre (which I used as Jack’s base color). I’m a HORRIBLE color mixer, so this led to some anxiety. I decided to try mixing Pthalo Green with Crimson Red, in hopes of making a dark brown of some sort to use for Jack’s stripes. It worked… kind of. It was a dark brown with a purple tint, which I guess is not a bad thing.  I wasn’t trying to make an uber-detailed piece anyway.

More painting the plate, bits at a time. I use paper towels and Q-tips to add interesting textures into the ink.

Making monotypes is MESSY. Really messy!!!! This is one of the last stages (the grass).

Here’s the final pull… the monotype with the much lighter ghost image…

The final monotype!! It just needs to be signed, and then it’s ready to roll.

The model(s)… and yes, Jack soundly defeated poor Caterpillar!!! With Lela’s assistance, the poor bug is now in tatters across the house.  It’s always kind of a bummer to, you know, spend $15 on a stuffed toy that lasts, oh…. 4 days. LOL.

This month a new urban “parkway” opened up… the Onondaga Creekwalk extending from downtown, through the northside, way up to Onondaga Lake. It is VERY exciting to have this sort of thing happen here, in the center of the ‘Cuse! It’s kind of gritty here, and you never hear much good stuff about the city. All the cool people have fled into the suburbs where crime is low and (presumably) they don’t randomly have McDonalds cups, chicken bones, and dirty baby diapers thrown in their front yard. (I’m also assuming they don’t hear random gunshots occurring at 10 pm on their blocks either, sigh, I mean really WTH).  It’s rust belt, it’s past-it’s-prime, it’s an old Erie Canal city that has seen WAY better days. But it seems things are changing.  It’s so nice the city investing in such an awesome civic project like the Creekwalk! Hooray!

With the nice Indian Summer we’ve been having, the pups and I decided to leash up and go hiking after church today. Here are some pics from our morning:

It was a wonderful walk. The actual Creekwalk starts in Armory Square, but because of Jack’s muscle injury, we decided to shave a few blocks off and park near Clinton Square, which was much closer to The Inner Harbor (our destination).

The city did a great job with signage, especially the parts that branched away from the water’s edge and into downtown. Of course I’ve driven through here a million times but… walking. Nice. Got to get up-close-and-personal with the buildings. Saw a lot of people enjoying the new walk. Stopped and had a great discussion with an elderly woman about The NiMo Man. Stopped to talk to lots of other Dog People. It was so nice!

At one point I was trying to get the dogs to “SIT” and “STAY” so I could take a picture, but they were giving me hell. A couple came along and offered to take a photo of us all together. Awwww. I am the only one who looks happy , oh well (LOL, wait until they get their “photo with Santa” next month, I can’t wait to see Lela’s expression of horror rofl).

More photos from our walk. If you’re in the ‘Cuse I highly recommend you explore the Creekwalk! It’s clean, beautiful, and very dog-friendly. I noticed there is a trailhead at Wallace Street, with an old (non-functioning) fire-station that has about 10 parking spots. You can also start at Armory Square, which apparently has a new statue commemorating the Creekwalk (“Walter the ‘Lock’ -Ness Monster”). The walk goes all the way to Onondaga Lake, and apparently is going to be extended south to Kirk Park and then to Nedrow. YAY!!!

Map of the Creekwalk.

I had some fun this weekend re-exploring polyester plate (aka “pronto plate”) lithography. I’ve never really been super-successful with it (and wasn’t this time either LOL) but had the itch to do some printmaking. I have to say, working in Oil Pastels and Acrylics is kind of… boring… compared to printmaking. I just wish it wasn’t so hard!

Polyester plates are paper-like but more waxy/slippery. I drew on it with a China Marker and Litho pencil, which was FUN. Something about the greasy pencils sliding over the slick surface…eeeee! So nice!  Makes it easy to get into “the zone.”

Anyway, the picture above is the plate. Below, I’ve started “etching” it with a mixture of gum arabic and water. You need to keep the plate wet with this solution while you roll the ink, or else the plate scums up. I’ve always found this really irritating, lol. Water gets ALL over. The brayer slides uncontrollably. It makes everything a complete disaster area.

There’s also a delicate balance between under-inking the plate and over-inking it. If you under-ink, the print comes out of the press very light:

… but if you over-ink, the print comes out really dark:

…and once you over-ink, it’s almost impossible to get the plate back to  normal- it’s essentially ruined.

I used Seth Cole Vellum which I love for woodcuts/linocuts, but sadly all the wetness involved in Lithography printing did a number on it. I now have 7 under- or over-inked prints curled and warped to oblivion.

So the plate litho experiment kind of bombed, but it was fun anyway and I’m going to try to use my Jackie sketch (with his super-large Caterpillar toy, $12 Country Max!) in another medium. I was going to try Oil Pastel, but maybe monotype. Mmmm…. we’ll see.

Jen

Since Lela came to live with us this summer and taught Jackie to wrestle, both pups have been honing their skills like mad.  It’s almost become like a ballet now, watching the two. Lela has a scrappy edge, throwing herself in and out of the fray with a huge production of snarling, growling, and teeth gnashing (something she picked up from Jack, lol. She doesn’t -quite- have the ‘gator mouth’ though… more like a, uh, piggy mouth).  She now seems to realize that Jack’s height is the big issue in play- so she does her best to bring him down to her level.  She’s like a crow taking on a huge hawk- dive bombing him over and over and over and over with utter abandon until he falls.

Jack, meanwhile, has learned some interesting techniques of his own. He does his best to stay in the center of the area rug he’s wrestling on, knowing Lela will try to drive him off and onto the slippery floors where he has a disadvantage. His ‘signature move’ seems to be grabbing the rolls of extra skin around her neck and pulling it up-and-over the top of her head, dropping her front end off-balance and to the side. If that doesn’t work or he’s feeling particularly naughty, he goes for a “cheek grab” and makes her yell. When they wrestle up-close, he’ll tease by grabbing her legs or paws in his mouth and gently biting down… other times he’s rough, intent on nipping and dominating.  Whether he is gentle or rough 100% of the time (so far) is a reflection of how Lela is playing with him, which is really interesting. If Lela is being gentle, he will handicap himself to her level, mouth her gently and nibble. If she’s spastic and whirling-dervish-crazy, he’ll snap, froth, grab, and be as nasty as he can get away with. He will never intentionally escalate play, but if Lela does he responds asap.

Some other favorites from this session… Lela’s facial expressions are hilarious… and Jack shows off his gleamingly-huge fangs and 90 degree head rotation in the last picture (WTF, how did he do that?!?)…

Well I finally opened my Etsy store up again– JENNIFER ZALEWSKI STUDIO.

I have some new stuff to add- will do that later. For now I have a few of my linocuts and woodcuts up. All are on sale!   I need to move this stuff out, and make room for new stuff, lol.

You may have seen I’ve been working on my website a bit- still a haul to go. I’ve been dabbling with “studio” names, trying to come up with a logo, etc etc. It’s hard! I think -think- I’ve finally settled on just using my name- Jennifer Zalewski Studio. I really wasn’t sold on that, and did a lot of research on many art forums re: what to ‘call yourself’ and the majority of “real” (?) artists said that if you want to be taken seriously- especially if you’re looking into the gallery/exhibition route- then use your own name.  I might do some fairs in the future (I dunno, I’ve done some and it’s really not my thing) but I really want to concentrate on exhibiting. We’ll see.

The other thing is that I want to get into showing dogs again. Not conformation, but agility, rally, etc. This means I have to come up with AKC names for my dogs and I have to opportunity to select a “prefix” or “kennel name”. If I have a fun studio name, I could also use it as my “kennel name” handle. That would be fun.

I tend to get tired of stuff though… what if I pick something that I hate 2 years down the line? I mean… when I first got out of College and was building my first website,  I picked  “Laughing Dragon Studio.” WTF? I REALLY liked fantasy/sci fi… I flew to Oregon and saw clouds shaped like smiling dragons… I read a lot of Anne McCaffery… okay. I was 21 and a total tard. By the time I was 25, I started thinking “Laughing Dragon Studio” was kind of lame and had moved on to “Jen’Z Studio.” I figured it was kind of cute, since my last name started with Z, and put together “Jen’z” kind of read like “Jen’s.” “Jen’z Studio”– “Jen’s Studio”. That lasted until a few years ago when I realized people pronounced it “Jen Zee” studio, not “Jen’s” or “Jen’zzzz”. Then I was like… what a cutesy, whimsical gimmicky name. I’m not cutesy OR gimmicky. And I’m DEFINITELY not whimsical, rofl!!! I mean– Jen’z Studio? WTF was I THINKING??? Lol. So I dropped it. It was hard because I was doing some Greyhound festivals at that time and I think people were starting to know the name, but not me.

I guess what it comes down to is that I’m too fickle to live with anything but my own name, sadly.   I mean I can pick a fun studio name NOW, and when I hit 40 in a few years you can BET YOUR BOTTOM DOLLAR I’ll be like, “Fast Flying Furry Dog Studio”-??? WTF was I THINKING???” LOL. And I’ll be in the Laughing Dragon/Jen’z Studio predicament all over again. I wish I had the ability to pick something fun that I’ll be satisfied with the rest of my life, but I can never seem to do that (probably why I am afraid to get a tattoo, even though I want one badly!).

Anyway, so I decided to go with my name- Jennifer Zalewski Studio. Even though it’s plain-jane, I’m kind of a plain-jane type of girl anyway. When I register my dogs with the AKC next month, I’ll use “Zalewski” as my “kennel handle”- i.e. Jack Owasco Zalewski, Lela Zalewski (omg, wouldn’t OTCH Jack Owasco Zalewski be totally rad?!?!?!?!).

Well anyway… Etsy Store is open. More stuff coming. Planning for 2012. Getting ready for The Long Winter. Yadda yadda yadda… more to come… including another installment of Bitey-face/Gator-mouth. 

-Jen

Since I’m “taking a break” from Printmaking for a bit and trying some new.. and old… things, I decided to head over to The Art Store to look at some new toys. I had kind of been thinking about delving back into Gouache (something I dabbled in during college) or trying Watercolor Pencils. The thing is, I’m not really a fan of watercolor. It’s very… delicate. Feminine. ethereal. But there are PENCILS, which are so much easier than BRUSHES, right?? Gouache- opaque watercolor- was a bit more my speed in terms of look, but I worried that I’d spend $100 on a set of something I don’t really like, and, eh…. well, I was hemming and hawing. Thankfully the ladies at the Art Store came to my rescue, talked me through my dilemma, and helped me decide on Golden Fluid Acrylics.

I’ve never really painted with Acrylics before- they’re SO popular, and I for some reason I like the less-tread path better.  I worry that my art isn’t –distinct?– enough on it’s own to stand out in a crowd, so a more rare medium helps with that?? I dunno.  I’ve dabbled with craft paint (not sure- is that acrylic, or tempera?) making camp signs and I’ve worked with Oils in high school, but… not Acrylic. Delving in and buying a whole set of these buggers makes me really nervous!  I’m going to have to visit El Biblioteca for some instruction books, that’s for sure…

We’ll see how it goes! If I really enjoy brushwork, maybe I’ll move into something different like Egg Tempera or Casein next…

Jen

Jeepers. I can’t believe it’s been 2 week since I last blogged. At that point we were spending our non-working hours sitting in the shade of our pine trees, lamenting the 80 degree weather. This weekend I’m in sweaters, mittens, a winter hat and I just …. dum dum DUM!… turned the furnace on for the first time.

Fall is my favorite time of year though. Central New York is just absolutely gorgeous… browns, oranges, yellows, reds, bright greens and olives. It’s windy. It’s crisp. If you can catch a good hike on a non-rainy day, then you’ve hit the Color Jackpot.

I’ve been trying to get out as much as I can. Jack is still in therapy for his Iliopsoas muscle injury (more on that later) so he’s only doing shorter hikes, 1-2 miles (we tried a 3.5 mile yesterday, but it was way too much). Thankfully Lela is more than willing to come along on the longer ones. It stinks not having Jack along though- he just LOVES LOVES LOVES going out. Breaks my heart.

These pics are Green Lakes in Manlius… actually (2) meromictic lakes -that means the top and bottom ‘layers’ of water don’t mix, so the lake looks turquoise most of the time. Really beautiful. The dogs had a blast!

We also went hiking with my cousin Melanie and her family recently- exploring one of my favorite x-country ski areas- Heiberg Forest in Tully. The trails aren’t marked very well but we found our way around somehow and had a great time (p.s.- check out Treasured Toad Designs, Mel’s jewelry blog!!).

Last Sunday morning, Lela and I did a beautiful hike at Highland Forest in Fabius. I was thinking we would hike the 3 mile ShortCut Trail, but somehow we ended up on the Main Trail which is an eight-miler that skirts the whole park. It was REALLY hilly, really gorge-y, and SUPER tough, and of course I had no water/compass/trail map/granola/cell phone/etc which really stunk. Lela ‘helped herself’ to several creeks we crossed, but I was afraid to drink out of them so by the end of the hike I felt like I was on a forced Death March. I never come prepared!!!

Check this out… have you ever seen such a ‘hairy’ mushroom??? It was growing on the side of a tree, and was bigger than a grapefruit but not so large as a cantaloupe.  I REALLY wanted to touch it, but was too creeped out to. So strange- !

I hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful autumn weather!! Before we know it, the 2 foot snow drifts will be here…

Jack and Lela playing Tug O War this weekend… (please excuse my muppet voice!)…

… and afterwards, I catch Jack thieving my Chex Mix lol. What an opportunist!

Here’s my newest Oil Pastel- so new, I haven’t signed it yet, LOL.

Haven’t figured out a title yet, either. Hmmm.

Some in progress pictures…

Please excuse the Desk of Disaster!!!  Sometimes when I get in the thick of things, it gets SUPER MESSY.

Jack is awfully cute, but his dark brindle face is really hard to paint! I wrestled with it for three evenings before I got it “right”.

Then came the Big Question that I always mull over when doing a roaching Greyhound. Do I… draw in the… um… you know. Do I draw “it”??? Do I leave it out??? Not to come off as a total prude, but … well… hmm. I finally decided what I always decide in this situation… Paint “it” in, but keep it as nebulous and camouflaged as possible!

I’m pretty happy with how it came out. Of course, I’ll be even happier when I have a super snappy title for it, lol!

Jen

“Coon Dawg”

8 x 10″

Oil Pastel on Canson Art Board

I am super stoked. For the first time in probably 3 years, I’ve finished a piece of art that I’m HAPPY with.

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I’ve just been feeling so stinky about my printmaking lately that I decided to take a break and go back to my Oil Pastels for awhile.  Maybe a long while. Well, not TOO too long (already planning some linocuts in my head lol…) but I’m beyond that “‘Real’ artists don’t dabble and stick to one medium only” mentality now.

It felt good to pick up my Oil Pastels again. In fact, I treated myself and bought a box of Senneliers, the Cadillac of Oilies. I’ve always used Cray-Pas since that’s what is sold locally–they are considered middle-of-the-road. Trying to get my creative juices flowing, a few months ago ordered some Caran D’Ache and Senneliers to try…they are considered the highest quality out there… I liked both but I REALLY liked the Senns. They were so much “creamier” than my Cray Pas and the Caran D’Ache. So I splurged on a small set that made my heart flutter.

Yum, right?

A couple months ago I had tried to do a White-Line Linocut of Lela. It came out really crappy but I loved the picture and sketch–she was just ripping into a stuffed raccoon-  So I re-did it this week on a medium gray Canson Art Board.

“You’re working on a picture of me? Cool.”

I really tried to keep it ‘loose’ with this. I didn’t want to do “fur and feather” uber-detailed “I can look at the portrait of that dog and tell you who its sire and dam are, it’s so lifelike” kind of painting. I wanted my pencil sketch to come through in areas. I wanted to kind of do this Oil Pastel in a way you’d do a White-Line Woodcut, where the areas are separated by the color of the paper, accentuating subjects and shape. I wanted that color coming through to give some interest and excitement like White-Line Woodcuts possess- but maybe not do it as ‘strictly’ as a White-Line? I dunno if I’m explaining it right.

Anyway, I’m so happy with how this came out. Already working on some Greyhound Oil Pastels– stay tuned.