This is my little friend. It’s a Gerber hard plastic squeegee for applying adhesive vinyl graphics. Or, at least, that’s what it was designed to do. But this little tool gets more use in my studio than almost anything else.

When I am preparing a canvas, after I have applied several layers of my gesso/matte medium mixture with a roller, I spread on thin coats of the stuff with this tool to fill in all the depressions. Alternating coats scraped on this way with wet sanding, I can create a very smooth surface.

Similarly, when a painting is completed, I apply several layers of matte medium as an isolating layer, first with a roller, then scraped-on layers with the squeegee. Alternating with wet sanding, I get a very smooth surface before applying the varnish.

It also comes in handy when I’m claeaning off the residue from wet sending. I spray on water with a spray bottle, then squeegee it off with this little guy. (See video below.)

You can see how the business edge of the squeegee is shorter than the other side. Eventually, this thing will be a stub, and I will need another one. I suspect that adhesive vinyl graphics are becoming less common, so I wonder if I will have trouble finding a replacement…

1. Not holding anything, non-attachment

2. Holding on to something of no value; unnecessary attachment

3. Having no toehold; working without a net

4. Exhalation; release

5. Having a grasp of no-thing; understanding nothingness

6. Abandon

Wisp
oil on canvas
21.5″x21.5″
Julie Alexander, 2006

A nice recent painting from a Seattle colleague – Julie Alexander. Julie and I have shown together in group shows a long time ago; both her work and mine have changed a lot over those years. A choice line from her artist’s statement:

At the painting’s surface there is a multiplicity – a this in conjunction with that. The lines assert and deny narrative.

02062498
alkyd, thread and beeswax on wood panel
5 5/8″ x 5 5/8″
1998

A small piece from ten years ago — I was working a lot back then with small wood panels. The surfaces had delicate alkyd glazes, which were then obfuscated by a thick layer of beeswax into which I embedded thread and/or dental floss. This was when that open horizon area started to form as a theme in my work.

My dentist bought one of the pieces with dental floss embedded and hung it in front of one of the chairs at his office. For a time, I was always seated in that room, and had a view of my piece while I was being worked on.

A Studio full of prints was what I got for my effort yesterday morning. The whole thing went really beautifully. The vacuum table worked perfectly, and I only had a few pulls that were throw-aways (which is good because I didn’t have that much in the way of extra paper).

When I was done printing, and was cleaning the screen out, the stencil sort of self-destructed under the water. Normally, it’s supposed to take Mr. Clean to get it out of the screen, but for some reason the sprayed-on stencil must be more vulnerable. So I guess that definitely puts a cap on edition size. Fine by me. Looks like this will be an edition of 25 with 2 artist proofs.

Via Boing Boing, from posted art department rules written by Sister Corita Kent

1. Find a place you trust and then try trusting it for a while.
2. General duties of a student: pull everything out of your teacher, pull everything out of your fellow students.
3. General duties of a teacher: pull everything out of your students.
4. Consider everything an experiment.
5. Be self-disciplined. This means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them. To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better way.
6. Nothing is a mistake. There is no win and no fail. There is only make.
7. The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It’s the people who do all of the work all the time who eventually catch on to things.
8. Don’t try to create and analyse at the same time. They’re different processes.
9. Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It’s lighter than you think.
10. “We’re breaking all of the rules. Even our own rules. And how do we do that? By leaving plenty of room for X quantities.” – John Cage.

Helpful hints: Always be around. Come or go to everything always. Go to classes. Read anything you can get your hands on. Look at movies carefully often. Save everything, it might come in handy later.

There should be new rules next week.

I’m especially struck by rule number 6. Aside from the fact that it sounds a little bit like Yoda (“There is no try…”), it gets at the heart of when art-making becomes free, and therefore joyous. In a lot of ways, this is how small children make art – up until a certain age (Third Grade?) when they become really self-conscious about their drawings looking “right,” they are free to live in a world where “there is only make.”