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Kathy Anne Art

Mariposa Grove 3

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Recycled Beverage Can Installation
Since returning from my trip to Alaska, my new project is taking shape.  It was started sometime in February by figuring out what surfaces were going to be put together and how.  Then the print to work from.  Chosen surfaces decided on are: digital prints on beverage cans, digital prints on my hand made amate bark paper, twigs and hemp. 
The strands of the elements measure 10 ft long and around 1 ½ “ wide.  They are fragile, light and will hang in a circular configuration.  Of course that will be subject to change as more and more pieces are created.  Currently, over 400 cans have been printed.
There are around 400 of the small elements almost together, as you can see by the pictures below. Many piles of cans are ready to cut and assemble.  This is a seriously tedious process.  Let’s hope it has the end result I am searching for.  

Clear Matte Precoat from inkAID

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Last year inkAID introduced a new product Clear Matte Precoat.  In the last couple of weeks I have been using the coating on a variety of surfaces. These surfaces include: recycled beverage cans, hand made bark paper from kozo fiber, hand made cheesecloth skins, metal mesh, pima tex cotton, organdy, lace paper, lutradur and recycled printers plates.  I tested it on surfaces next to inkAID’s Semi Gloss Precoat, Pearl Iridescent and Type ll since these are my most used coatings.

Clear Matte gives a translucent, matte finish which allows the underlying image to show through. If you have a dyed or painted surface, the colors will show through on the print creating an overprint. Depending on how dark the colors are on the surface of the fabric or paper, you will see sections of the print or not.

What I found with my printing is that on porous fabrics such as organdy, the clear matte will give a slightly clearer print then the semi gloss.  When printing on metals and cans, it has a nice matte finish, but still allows the shade of the metal to show.  In some cases it is hard to see the difference between the coatings used.  I encourage you to try it on the surfaces that you like to print to see what you think.  It’s always good to see how coatings perform on various surfaces.

As with all the inkAID coatings Clear Matte results in a quality print.  It has some adhesive in it, so it is safe to use on metals, but may show tracking with pizza wheels from some printers.  I had none of that going on with my prints.  Each print was professional quality with a clear bright image.  My printing was all created on my Epson 4800.  I printed the same image on all the surfaces so that it could be easily compared.

I loved the comparison of Type ll, Pearl and Clear Matte on the recycled beverage cans.  All 3 of these coatings created a beautiful print on the cans.  For more information on using inkAID products on fabrics and specialty papers see my workshop, “Getting Started with Digital Prints on Uncommon Surfaces.”

Assembling Digital Prints on Beverage Cans

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Finished printing 100 more cans to add to this piece.  Still haven’t decided if I will wire them all across, or keep them in rows the way they are.  Regardless, I am assembling the pieces that are ready to go.  The print for this piece is from the Mariposa Grove in Yosemite National Park.

Here also is one of the carrier sheets with the bottom half of the entire print.  Since I only print 8 cans at a time, I divide the print before printing.

Once the cans are ready, I will assemble them to fit with the other pieces.  When starting a piece, printing 100 cans to start will get me on the track of figuring out the way the piece will be assembled and what it will look like.  With this piece, the way I thought it would be is nothing near the way it worked out.  The original idea about constructing the cans came from the installation for Mack Web Solutions.  (Click on the link to see the blog post)

When I arrived to install the piece, all the cans were in one piece and they evolved into being cut, stacked and wired together with glass beads separating the layers.  For this Mariposa Grove piece, I cut the top layer of each square in 4 pieces.  The bottom layer is a duplicate of the top layer, but in one piece.  I crocheted 28 gauge stainless wire to put between the 2 layers.  Then copper wire was used to wire the layers together and add it to the piece.

Design Intriguing Surfaces Ebook

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Intended to inspire and spark artist’s creativity, “Designing Intriguing Surfaces” is the first ebook in a series that will combine digital printing with alternative surfaces.  Silk, canvas, lutradur, organdy, pimatex cotton, tyvek and several types of paper are included in this ebook, to highlight surfaces that can be printed on any straight path inkjet printer.  This enables the artist to work with regular non art type printers. Of course the surfaces are also wonderful when printed on archival art printers also. The techniques can be used by anyone that wants to experiment and create this type of work.
“Design Intriguing Surfaces” includes precoating surface instructions, helpful hints and a complete supplier list.  Each page is filled with visual eye candy that encompasses prints on the various surfaces discussed and also details of completed art work.
Since my work is influenced by forests, textures are evident in the process of my digital prints. I believe there are unlimited possibilities to use digital prints in all sorts of manners in art.  This book will open a series on that path.  The second book, already in the works “Assemble Intriguing Surfaces” will take the reader into the ways I construct some of these prints into art books and other art work.  From there I will be doing one on: texture, printing with a mini printer, skins with added elements, recycled beverage cans and metal mesh.  These subjects will in turn create other ideas to take this series of books further. 
You can purchase your copy of “Designing Intriguing Surfaces”  by download or on a cd.
Members of KathyAnneArt  receive 20% off the price of 9.99 for the download and $25.00 for the CD version.  Members be sure to sign in to get your discount, once the item is in the cart your discount will appear.
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For more information contact me at KathyAnneArt

Amate Bark Digital Print

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Several projects have been going at one time and some of them were finished this past week. The subject of today’s post is a piece that started when I made bark paper (featured in the previous post) using the Amate process. The finished piece is composed of 3 layers: the bottom is a piece of black hardware cloth with a 1/4″ grid, above that is a piece of copper mesh that has been digitally printed, above that is a piece of the bark paper I printed with the same image on the copper mesh.

The photograph was taken in the Mariposa Grove in Yosemite National Park this June. Photoshop was used to manipulate and combine the original photograph with another image. This piece is around 37″ in height and 17″ in width. The layers have been assembled using waxed linen tied through the three surfaces. The pictures show a few details and the actual piece.