It's the end of 2013, December 18. I've finally been able to access my 3 blogs, which I've not been able to access since 2008!!!! I found that I had an error in a spelling for an address for signing in. It took me, how long? ... 5 1/2 years? Not sure if I'll be posting much more...maybe, maybe not. But I've updated my email addresses, etc., for contacts.

For Illustration Friday posts, please see my Monkey Sox blog

For my new or lastest Illustration Friday posts, please see my Monkey Sox blog

http://monkeysox.blogspot.com/

Illustration Friday Theme: Plain (Socks)

(Please click image to enlarge and view)

Illustration Friday Theme: Plain
Artist: Debra Woolard Bender
Title: Socks
Medium: Digital
Materials: Paint Shop Pro; painted using mouse
Category: Painterly (Style: expressionism)

chill morning—
we all go to dancing
on the roof of Hell

DW Bender
haiku, January 2008
alludes to a haiku by Kobayashi Issa (1763 -1827):

世の中は地獄の上の花見哉
yo [no] naka wa jigoku no ue no hanami kana

in this world
over Hell, we promenade,
gazing at flowers

Issa
(translation version, mine)

2 versions:


Note: It's now midweek, and judging by the number of comments, I doubt these sport and business socks are running a race for 'Most Popular Submission' on this week's Illustration Friday theme of "Plain." Socks as subject matter did give me the incentive, however, to open a separate blogsite for my IF image posts. And the socks helped to inspire a name for it, too: As of next week, MONKEY SOX will be the repository and avatar for my IF creations. 'My Hermitude' blog will now be used for postings on printmaking.

Illustration Friday: Stitch (21st Century DesignSpeak)

SEW WHAT?! Stitch Trivia—in tbe realm of textile design, there is a little-known embroidery technique called the balloon stitch. While the decorative threadwork has never actually been known to embellish fashionable lighter-than-air circus poodles or inflated latex birthday hats, we think it pops.

Illustration Friday Theme: Stitch
Artist: Debra Woolard Bender
Title: 21st Century DesignSpeak
Medium: Digital
Materials: Paint Shop Pro; Drawn with mouse; Fonts: Mistral and Bauhaus
Category: Cartoon

mother says
something's wrong with my poetry—
perhaps it's me

DW Bender
untitled senryu

rev. 18/01/08

OMG! Web Findings - 3 fabulous artists

Woodblock prints above are by Lojze Spacal [1907–2000] (Slovenia).

sketchbook—
drawing the air around
the apple

DW Bender
haiku

Browsing the web in the early hours, before anyone else is awake...except for the several cats...I've had the wonderful fortune to discover for myself, three exceptional artists:

#1. The first artist of my excitement is Lojze Spacal (1907 - 2000), a fantastic Slovenian artist who worked in graphic arts as well as painting, muraling, mixed media, photography, etc. I would love to visit the Lojze Spacal Gallery in Štanjel. His woodblock and linocut prints are incredible, and bring to mind my favorite Japanese Sosaku Hanga artist, Kiyoshi Saito. I include more info on him, as most sites are not in English, and because he is my favorite find today, tickling all my right-brain art receptors. The URL below leads to a documentary on Spacal with wonderful images of his himself, his works, his house/home studio, the garden and hometown. It includes some images of the artist printing woodblock or linocut works at his press in his beautiful studio.

http://www.fatamorgana.si/SPACAL/index.htm

There is a bio in English on Vodnik website:

LOJZE SPACAL (Trieste 1907 – 2000 Trieste, buried in Skrbina) painter and graphic artist. Region: Obalno-kraška regija

Lojze Spacal has the reputation of being one of the most prominent artists in the post-war Slovene and Italian areas, and an artist of worldwide acclaim. He reached his artistic peak in graphic techniques, mainly in linocut and woodcut. He also used many other techniques: oil, mosaic, tapestry, fresco, and various mixed techniques, for example, a combination of sculpture, relief and painting. He came to be remembered as the artist of Istria and the Karst, because he derived inspiration for his work from these two regions and he interpreted them in his own artistic language. He spent a lot of time in his house in Skrbina in the Karst, where he is also buried, as he wished. His work was awarded many national and international, Slovene and Italian awards: the Graphic Award of the Biennial of Contemporary Art in Sau Paolo, Brazil (1953), Graphic Gran Prix at the Venetian Biennal (1958), the Award of the Presidency of the Chamber of the Members of Parliament of the Italian Republic (1968), the Preseren Award for Life Achievement (1974), the Trieste Golden St. Justin (1977), the Golden Star of the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia (awarded to him by J.B.Tito in 1978), the Golden Medal of the Trieste Region (1984), Correspondence Member of the Slovene Acedemy of Science and Arts (1987), the Jakopic Award (presented to him posthumously in 2000) and many other awards for his artistic works. He participated in numerous collective and individual exhibitions in Slovenia, Italy and in other parts of the world. He participated four times in the Venice Biennial and his works were exhibited on a regular basis in the Ljubljana Biennial. His paintings and graphics form part of numerous important gallery collections of contemporary art all around the world.
Since 1988, there has been a permanent exhibition of his works in the Castle of Stanjel.

# 2. The second artist is a living designer, Thomas Heatherwick, an Englishman who brings together design, sculpture and architecture. His beautiful sculpture for Wellcome Trust, constructed of 150,000 sphereical glass beads is called Bleigiessen, (lead guessing) a German word for pouring melted lead into water, in which the resulting shape is used for divination (future/fortune-telling).

Google "Thomas Heatherwick" for images of his works. Here is a URL link to one view of Bleigiessen:

http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/doc_wtd015326.html

#3. The third is an artist who piques my leftish-brain minimalist graphic bone. Among other mediums with which he produces his works, German artist, Christoph Feichtiner, travels around the world making "Ferrograms" (iron prints) from designs he finds on manhole covers: http://www.woostercollective.com/2007/04/ferrograms_from_christoph_feichtinger.html

His gallery site: http://www.fei.at/

Illustration Friday: 100% (For/Given)

(Please click image to enlarge and view)

Illustration Friday Theme: 100%
Title: For/Given
Artist: Debra Woolard Bender
Medium: Intaglio (etching)
Category: Figurative

attuned in deep prayer
the air was charged with silence
upon entering
the great void wherein is all...
I have searched so long for you

DW Bender
untitled tanka
published in collaborative tanka series,"Between Breaths" (5/01)

Woodblock Printing: Sunbird, Artist's Proof #1

(Please click image to enlarge and view)

o wild Icarus
how you melted into time
as one born too soon
yet I have arrived too late
to follow my desire

DW Bender
untitled tanka
published in the collaborative tanka sequence, "Between Breaths" 05/01)


Ouch, the camera flash was a bit bright!

Yesterday, I pulled the first artist's proof from the third block, "Sunbird," using water-based black Speedball ink. I handcolored the background with oil pastels, and melted the colors with a bit of citrus oil. I had thought about using water colors, but had read in Keiko Hiratsuka Moore's book, Moku Hanga, about kurepasu hanga (cray-pas woodblock prints), a woodblock printmaking technique using cray-pas (mixed crayon and pastel coloring sticks) instead of ink, swabbing the back of the baren-rubbed paper with benzine to melt the colors into the paper. The method was invented by her father, famous sosaku hanga artist, Un'ichi Hiratsuka in the 1930's, the technique being very popular among Japan's schoolchildren, according to the author. I decided to try oil pastels for the background, and may try the kurepasu hanga technique on a different block in the near future.

While I love the luminosity of the colors in the background, I'm not entirely happy with the result of my first experiment on "Sunbird." I think I need another type of solvent for the oil pastels to reduce or eliminate excess oiliness on the paper. Maybe I'll get some benzine or try mineral spirits. I also want to try using some different colored inks in various areas of the image. I won't cut separate blocks for various colors, but will ink the various areas in the desired colors. I don't think I want the sunbird to be black. So, I'll exeriment with both foreground areas and background. I also want to experiment with embossing powders (heated) as pigment. I'm looking forward to this experimentation. (Update: I bought a heat gun, some colorless embossing ink and clear embossing powder which I can sprinkle over or mix with colored and inked areas of the paper.

I also, at some point, want to try some encaustic painting, and see if I might be able to combine it with relief prints. I've decided to use this first artist's proof and perhaps some others as bits to cut out as shapes for future collages, and will cut out areas of future prints that would be otherwise discarded because of some flaw.