Gocco, you have my apologies

Doh!
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

Dear sweet Gocco machine*, I'm sorry I ever spoke ill of you. You were never an ill device devised by the evil one at all, you just had a mealy old press bed that was keeping you down. Replace that and suddenly using you isn't hard at all, almost like you were designed to be used by Japanese children or something.

I've been goccoing a bit since getting the new bed (old bed pictured on the left after having been scraped off of the plastic base), but nothing I felt the desire to share. I've been using scraps from them in various collages and I will do the same with the ones from yesterday, but these deserve to be more of a focus than a background player. Also, I like the full design enough that I am going to get some black Moleskine cahier notebooks to print it on.







I knew that the bed was bad months ago but didn't act on it because I had talked myself into thinking Gocco wasn't right for me. Basically talked myself into an artistic box where I am a woodblock relief printmaker who can't draw well enough and doesn't like silkscreening. And that the supplies are too much money compared to what I am used to. That if I mess up a small block it is no big deal, but to screw up a screen is a tragedy.

Well, I guess I am more willing to push myself and take some chances these days. Because Gocco is great fun and a useful artistic tool that you will be seeing more from.

*gocco is a portable Japanese silkscreening device originally intended for children, but it has taken off in the arty/ crafty western community recently. Even though it is no longer being sold here and must be imported. Mine is over 20 years old but with a brand new bed. I hope there are stills supplies available for it when blee is old enough to play with it. And that they are cheap enough that I don't have to check her design for goccoworthiness too much.

Looking Back

Masks
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

This is one of my first woodblock prints. At the time I was still pretty into doing self-portraits and masks are a theme that have come up in my work on and off for many years.

This piece was made for the class I took at Mass Art called "Print into Books" taught by the inspiring Annie Silverman. She's a printmaking not a bookbinder and the book part was a bit of an afterthought. And I am cool with that because she and that class changed my life.

While I did love that original block I moved on to carve many new blocks until a few months ago I stumbled upon it while organizing my blocks and figured what the heck, why not see what I can do with it now? Here are a handful of the pieces I have made with it since.









Then there are the ACEOs I have made splitting up the faces.




I guess this one piece shows exactly where I have come from as an artist in the past two years and what I have done with what I started with. Oh and go Sox I guess!