Spring 2011: Digital Artist Book

Here is one artist book from a series of 22 based on the novel and documentary The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan. Each book is about 4.7” x 6” (12 cm x 15 cm) and was made for my final Digital Printmaking project. The image of the apple on a tree is a stock photo, the collage of a painting of an Alpine girl (not sure who created this painting) with honey bees and semper augustus tulips was created by myself, the painting of poppies is by Georgia O’Keefe, and the photo of the Andean potato farmer I found on peruforless.com. The book was created in PhotoShop and printed on 11” x 17” paper by a laser printer. The cover was printed on an inkjet printer on red cardstock. The text is excerpts from the novel.



“Sweetness is a quality rarely found in nature. Most apples that grow in the wild taste bitter; only a few trees produce a fruit that is sweet. Humans have learned over the years to cultivate sweetness in the apple, mostly by grafting the trees that produced the tastiest fruit. As we go about selecting the tastiest apple and sending it around the world we are shrinking the species’ genetic diversity by grafting the same plant over and over, restricting its natural ability to keep adapting its defenses against the pests that prey upon it.”



“Bees and humans may not appear to have much in common, but one thing we certainly share is our attraction to flowers. Flowers serve no practical purpose, but we nonetheless dote on them and collectively spend billions of dollars a year to keep them around us – simply because we think they’re beautiful. The tulip has merely done what any flower does: evolve alongside a particular culture’s ideal of beauty. Embedded in the genes of every tulip is a blueprint for what will captivate a bumblebee or hummingbird, a Dutchman or an Ottoman Turk.”



“A few plants have hit upon an especially ingenious approach to ensuring their survival, producing chemicals that have the power to alter how humans experience the world. The relationships between these plants and the people who use them have evolved over time, both influencing and reflecting the values of the societies in which they are used. In every society except the Inuit, whose climate is too harsh for vegetation, people have sought out plants that can cause profound changes to their consciousness.”



“More than most other foods, the easily cultivated, immensely nourishing potato appeals to our desire to control the messy, fickle business of farming and feeding ourselves. From the day when Andean farmers harvested all manner of varied and multicolored papas, the potato’s willingness to grow in even the most inhospitable soil has given humanity a measure of control over its destiny that would have been unthinkable before the plant’s introduction.”

Spring 2011: Pronto Plate Lithograph

This is one of the 9” x 12.5” (23 cm x 31.75 cm) identical prints I made in Digital Printmaking in a series of four, along with the artist's proof. They were printed using lithography on pronto plates. The original collage image was created in PhotoShop and relates to mass media. You can find one print from this series is in the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's print archive.


View larger image here.

Spring 2011: Lotus Screen Prints

Here is a series of four 8” x 12” (20 cm x 30.5 cm) screen prints of a lotus design I made in Digital Printmaking by painting onto the screen with watercolor paints and pastels.

Spring 2011: Alcohol Gel Transfer Prints

This is a series of five 8" x 10.5" (20 cm x 26.5 cm) prints created for my Digital Printmaking class. They were made by transferring images on transparencies from an inkjet printer by hand onto paper soaked in hand sanitizer. Watercolor pencil was added to the transparencies and other areas were distressed with sandpaper before printing. The photos in this series are from the protest on March 5, 2011 in Madison, Wisconsin, against Governor Scott Walker's union-busting Budget Repair Bill.

Fall 2010: Ceramic Koi

Created using soft slab construction with etching, white slip, and layers of watered-down orange and black underglaze. Measures 24" x 10" x 4.5" (61 cm x 25 cm x 11 cm).

Spring 2011: Digital Collage

30" x 40" (76.2 cm x 101.6 cm) printed poster collage done in PhotoShop CS3 for Digital Printmaking. The assignment was to examine ideas about portraiture and environment in relation to time, space, and narrative, based on the style of David Hockney’s photography.

Fall 2010: Figure Painting

Done in oil paint on paper and canvas.

11” x 15” (28 cm x 38 cm) on paper, done in one class, along with the first painting

15” x 22” (38 cm x 55.8 cm) self-portrait on paper, done in two classes, inspired by the style of Lucian Freud

11” x 15” (28 cm x 38 cm) on paper, done in one class

15” x 16” (38 cm x 40.6 cm) on paper, copy of a Lucian Freud painting done in one sitting outside of class

11” x 12” (28 cm x 30.5 cm) on paper, copy of a Lucian Freud painting done in one sitting outside of class

14” x 18” (35.5 cm x 45.7 cm) on canvas, done in one class

14” x 18” (35.5 cm x 45.7 cm) on canvas, done in two classes, inspired by the style of Ann Gale

18” x 14” (45.7 cm x 35.5 cm) on canvas, done in one class, inspired by Pierre Bonnard’s style

11” x 15” (28 cm x 38 cm) on paper, done in one class, inspired by the style of the 1940s-1960s Bay Area Figurative painters

11” x 15” (28 cm x 38 cm) on paper, done in one class, inspired by the Bay Area Figurative Movement style

14” x 18” (35.5 cm x 45.7 cm) on canvas, done in three classes, inspired by Sue Coe

14” x 18” (35.5 cm x 45.7 cm) on canvas, done in two classes, inspired by Edward Hopper’s style

20” x 32” (50.8 cm x 81.2 cm) triptych self-portrait on canvas, done outside of class