Have you been to Tors Cove? It really is worth the trip. Amongst the many reasons to go, Running the Goat Books & Broadsides is out there! Marnie Parsons is embracing her second summer in her beautiful new studio with gusto by expanding the range of local work she is carrying, and I'm thrilled and honoured to have four of my prints for sale there this year. The printshop will be open Tuesday through Sunday from 10:30 to 5:30 from mid May until the end of October. Be sure to stop in to Five Island Art Gallery while you're there. There is also easy access to the East Coast Trail directly across from the church parking lot.
Here's a peek at the prints of mine that will be available at Running the Goat this year. From top to bottom left: "Here",
"Moving forward, Looking back",
"Rooms in Memory" - which depicts the view from the tower of the now deconsecrated church in Tors Cove,
and "Marking the Journey" - similar to Moving forward, Looking back, but with a collaged drypoint on rice paper strip incorporated.
"Marking the Journey" has also been submitted to the St. Michael's Printshop Annual Member's Exhibit. The opening is this Saturday from 2-5, and the exhibition will be up until June 20th. See invitation below.
What do you think of digital watermarks? This winter I took an introductory Photoshop workshop, and from it I figured out how to make watermarks on digital images. Are they too distracting? I haven't bothered with them before on images of my jewellery because I've figured there isn't as much value in duplicating an image of jewellery. And if someone is that dedicated to copy a jewellery design, they also need the technical skills to do so.
I say this in no way to diminish the skill required to hand-pull prints, but with images of prints online, all that's technically necessary to have the image for your very own would be to print it off from your computer. Obviously someone doing this doesn't have much respect for the actual work involved in the printmaking process, or the unique texture and feel of hand-pulled prints. But much as I hate to mar the images you see here, I feel it is becoming the new (unfortunate) "normal" in this digital age.
I'm excited to have printmaking as another creative outlet. While it initially was the commonalities between etching jewellery and etching prints that drew me to it, I am now intrigued by so many more of the printmaking processes. We'll see where it all leads!
