Make a Wish- in My Drawers

Day #13,  November 30, 2013 from What's in My Drawers.

Make a Wish
Collograph, gesso, oil, graphite, rubber stamp
on paper
30" x 22"
©NanciHersh
$325.00

                                                             

Make a Wish is from a series I did when my now teenage sons, were very young, using recycled children's clothing as a vehicle to tell the stories of childhood/motherhood, time passing, and memory. 

Often in this work, numbers and letters float through space.

This is a collograph print.  I coated the clothing with an acrylic gel medium that when dried creates a hard impermeable surface that I rolled up with ink and embossed onto a sheet of paper using a table top etching press. 

Childhood flies by in a blur. Memory, reality and fantasy float in and out of the day to day rituals of feeding, dressing, changing- and that all too elusive- sleeping.  I always say that my boys make me "work for a living" (!) but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Ok, I wouldn't mind a little more compliance.  Make a Wish.

Click here to see the post about What's in My Drawers and be in the loop for the rest of the art and stories in this blog series.

Shots from the Stroll

Woke up on April 1 to snow, no joke.  (Though Nate woke up with a mustache drawn on his face by his older brother Griffin!)

Entrance to
The Garage Community and Youth Center

Tricia Sickles, Lisa MacMain, & Carolyn Viens

Bridget Phillips, artist
below her collograph

The weather cleared in time for Art Stroll Kennett Square and the YoungMom's work looked great!

Collographs with a Press

With some help, we got my table top press to The Garage for our second session of Teen Moms Make Art (working title) as part of my Leeway Foundation Art & Change Grant.

Step 1
Inking up the clothing, as well as,
 any other textues that you want to be printed

Inking up some elements to be run through
the press with the clothing
(Notice the hat and textures laying on the
sheet of plexiglass beyond Bridget)

Rolling up the clothing with ink

Step 2
You can lay the objects directly on
the press bed, or on a sheet of plexi-glass

Step 3
Rolling the plate through the press-
always an air of anticipation!

Our collograph with monotype prints!

Here I am with Lisa McMain (R), the amazing creative woman
with a generous heart, tremendous faith who created this group-
she is also my new friend

Tiny Garments can tell Big Stories with a Collograph- Part 1 Video

Teen Mom project funded by the Leeway Foundation Art & Change Grant at the The Garage to begin shortly!  We will be working together to create collographs.

Fear, Faith, 2001
Collograph with acrylic, graphite, collage
44" x30"
©2011NanciHersh

A collograph is a printmaking process. This particular form of printmaking is accessible, rich in texture,  and image development as it enables you to work additively or subtractively. For our upcoming project with the teen moms we will be using donated, discarded and recycled infant and toddlersʼ clothing as the “plates” or print matrix. The clothing becomes the plates as they are painted with a gel medium that hardens the surface and allows it to be embossed or inked and printed on a table top etching press. 

These altered garments can be a perfect vehicle for sharing stories and giving voices to the experiences of responsibility and lost youth, and the joys and challenges of parenting, at any age.

Here is a short video of preparing the clothing so that they will be the collographic plates that will be embossed or inked up.

  

See How Tiny Garments can tell Big Stories with a Collograph

Recently, Lisa MacMain and I met at  her house to sort through bags of donated baby clothing for my Leeway Foundation Art & Change Grant.  We will begin working with the Teen Moms at the end of this month.  To get started we decided to have some baby clothing ready for the girls to work with.

These tiny garments will become the catalysts and vehicles for stories told through images and words.

We will be making collographs together.  Collograph is a type of printmaking.

The root of the word is colle` - French for glue.It is the glue, or in this case Liquitex Gloss Medium & Varnish that will seal the porous fabric of the clothing so they can be inked up or embossed and run through a press.

I plan on having some pieces of clothing ready for the girls to begin working with when we have our first meeting at The Garage on January 27.

Coating clothing with Gel Medium

This is only the beginning of our adventure together!

What stories would your favorite clothing tell?