I did some more organizing today, and took pictures of an older project from 2007 called World Tessellations. I took a icosahedral projection of the world (an isocahedron is a 3D shape having 20 triangle-shaped sides) and cut each section out of copper, then selected a piece at random and built the entire map from that piece. I did eight permutations of the map while I was at my September 2007 residency in Provincetown for my MFA:
Check out a solo show of prints I installed Saturday at Artists Crossing, at 34 Bromfield in downtown Boston! Here’s a quick image of four of the prints:
Here’s a shot in-studio of the newest Graphic Geography edition, Graphic Galveston Bay, which is a subject I’m doing on commission. For this print I had Salem Metal Fabricators laser-cut .040″ aluminum sheet, and it performed excellently.
Here’s the last of the big Plexiglas plates I had laser-cut in order to use the 44″ x 30″ paper I ordered back in February. Earlier I did the Mediterranean and the Aleutian Islands, the final one is Kerguelen Island, also known as Desolation Island. It’s an island in the South Indian Ocean, and it’s the largest bit of land for hundreds of miles in any direction. In fact, that’s the reason I noticed it in the first place—on a satellite poster of Earth that I have, Kerguelen Island sticks out pretty obviously due south of the tip of India, in the middle of nowhere. Projection distortion makes it look bigger than it is, but it’s still pretty large, about 100 miles by 100 miles.
So this is my favorite island, and this print is bigger than the other island prints I’ve done, measuring 30″ square. Here’s a series of shots taken during printing.
The raw Plexiglas plate, with the top protective paper removed. I leave the bottom paper on to make it less slippery, and to help keep the thin parts of the plate attached.
The plate, inked and on the press bed, ready for paper.
The print finished, laid on the blotters to dry.
Just got back from a few hours at Mixit Print Studios, where I was editioning a shaped plate print of the Mediterranean Sea. This is something of a throwback to a series I did a few years ago called Graphic Geography. This time, I’m actually editioning the plates properly and doing them much larger.
Once upon a time, I could cut these by hand using a jeweler’s saw and copper sheet. This only works for pieces with the largest dimension around 15″. This plate is acrylic plastic rendered in Adobe Illustrator and cut on a laserjet. For scale, the paper for these is 44″ x 30″.
Some pics of the process follow.
Inking the plate.
Embossing of the plate after it's been run through the press.
Pulled print drying on blotter paper.
