Family Seas, Trees & Charts

FAMILY SEA

Family Names in an undulating sea, buoying up the ships...some life metaphors here, surely.

FAMILY TREE

Sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters, and even great-grandchildren branch out from the trunk, where it all started, with one sweet union. Framed by a home-spun cross-stitch border and family name plate.

GENEOLOGICAL CHART

Family Name Crest, surrounded by ancestor names and birth dates, charted back as many generations as you have information. Family photos or quotes make a nice addition.

I enjoy making these Family Sea, Tree & Chart drawings for my own family, friends, and for clients.

{Grandma's 80th Birthday Gift}

Please CONTACT me in you are interested in a Custom drawing to honor your family.

Arla: 80 Years Young

I know. My Grandma is hot. In addition, she has a heart of gold, works like a mule, and is ever steadfast in her love of God, commitment to the gospel, and love of family. Best wishes for her birthday today!

Captain's Row: Cobblestone Composition

Cobblestones, Ballast stones, are good for holding down the empty ship across the ocean to port, for paving streets, for balancing a drawing composition.
Thanks to Mr. Otto for the idea!

Captain's Row: 100 BLOCK Prince Street

100 BLOCK Prince Street Alexandria VA; Rough Draft

After photographing each building, measuring widths (with my own feet, in heels, admittedly), I drew "Captain's Row", the 100 Block of Prince Street in Alexandria. I was happy to draw with my Parker 51, recently resurrected after getting clogged with ink; I thoroughly washed and soaked and dried it back to action.

The block was selected after much deliberation and walking around town. The slope is interesting and a challenge. I like the way the rowhomes shift with the slope; Sill and rooflines do not align between neighbors. Because of the slope, however, the drawing does not appear to be at rest. A solution - and final drawing - is forthcoming...

Letterpress: Questions, Answers, Inspiration

It is a New Year's Resolution: LEARN LETTERPRESS.
I have been gathering inspiration: perusing paper shops like Le Village Marche - Paris is just down the street!, as well as the mother of all paper shops, Paper Source. I've been delighted to find artists whose work I adore. Many are featured in this book, a compilation of the work of 30 contemporary Letterpress Artists by Charlotte Rivers, from Chronicle Books. I've even found some clues about how to learn Letterpress in Alexandria and a host of videos, including this one which takes a tour of Hatch Show Print, Letterpressing since 1879 in downtown Nashville.

"Preservation through Production"

- Hatch Show Print Manager, Jim Sherraden



I loved the comment by RayDAidler:
A Graphics Art student asked the instructor,
"What is the difference between offset and letterpress printing?"
The instructor told him, "When a girl kisses her handkerchief then presses it against your lips, that's kinda like offset printing. But when she presses her lips against yours, now that's LETTERPRESS ! "

Lithography: 2011: Alexandria VA

I took myself on a field trip to a class at the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria tonight to try to get a visual understanding of traditional printing techniques. Master Penny was gracious to explain the differences between Lithography, Offset Lithography, Etching, Photogravure. I was trying to understand the technique, for my own curiosity as well as discern if traditional printing could be a way to print my drawings, for a hand-made feel, the impression of ink on paper by sheer force rather than inkjet. I am seeking a way to print in a tradition that shares history with the types of drawings I am making, that preserves an honorable art, that is more tactile.

I watched two students laboriously and methodically make a lithographic print: rolling the oversized brayer back and forth through the almost-dry black ink puddle on the table, then five times over the illustrated stone, then ink, then stone, then ink, then stone. Fresh paper on the inked stone, scratch paper for padding, top cloth. Set the large metal handle of the large metal roller, then rotate the handle and guide the stone down the table and under the essential weight of the roller to push the ink from the stone to the paper in just the right proportion.

The machines and the stones were made and used in the 1800s. The drawing is produced, backwards, on the stone's surface, no engraving, with a variety of fountain pens feeding a special greasy ink. The greasy ink holds the printing ink as it is rolled over the surface and imprints the paper when pressed. The stone I photographed (above) shows the backwards drawing and epitomizes the level of detail that can be achieved with fine point greasy ink pens. When litho printers closed shop in the later 1900s, stones were thrown in the river. These are very heavy and hard to come by these days (so are the presses.) When a stone is put out of commission, it is recycled by grinding the drawn image from its surface through a series of granular concoctions rubbed over the surface increasing from relatively coarse to the finest granularity, like sandpaper without the paper. Then a new drawing can be created on the stone.

A description of the Process of Lithographic Printing can be found on the internet but seeing the prints was essential to really make an impression, for me. Kind of like the difference between inkjet and hand press.

The Athenaeum Centerpiece

I've been looking over Old Town Alexandria with my drawing eye for some months now and finally have landed on my pick. As it goes so often, your first impulse is usually right. My first taste of Alexandria in 2008 was bustling King Street in the height of summer. Ducking away from the crowds, just one block south, I found respite and intrigue on Prince Street. The block between Union and Lee Street, closest to the Potomac River is known as Captain's Row. The next block is Gentry Row. Between the two rows is the Athenaeum. It is home to Northern Virginia Fine Arts Association and it's vaulted space swathed with light from huge windows is used as a gallery and educational venue. Originally, it was built as the Bank of the Old Dominion, served as Chief Commissary's Office during the Civil War, reverted to a bank, then an apothecary factory, then a church. That is the beauty of a "dumb" - and beautiful - building: to live multiple lives and thus retain, even increase, in value in the community. It the is Centerpiece of the new Alexandria Streetscape Drawing...to be continued...