I wondered if anyone is curious about the art at the top of this page. I’ll tell you the story behind it another time.

I can tell you it is one of my most favorite print series. The original prints are 10 black and white images that are 14″ wide and 20″ tall on paper with a 2 inch margin all around. Therefore the whole series hanging together is 15 feet long, and the title is “Ode to Andy”. Do you have a wall that it will fit? Let me know because it needs a really nice home. I had the prints high resolution scanned and combined them into the single image you see above, and printed it out in smaller sizes. These digital reproductions I called “Andy’s Wall”, and one copy I re-made into an accordion book with a false slate-like cover, entitled “Stone by Stone”. There are a lot of different things you can do with prints.

I did this series a few years ago when I was in grad school, and there are actually 3 more finished images that I did not put into the line-up (I decided 15 feet was long enough!), so each one of the extras has a different name. The technique used is traditional lithography, done on aluminum plates. It took A LOT of drawing and shading to make 13 images, and I’ve lost track of how many months it took. At the time I started it I had to have carpal tunnel surgery on my right hand, so it looked like I wasn’t going to make deadline on the project, with my right hand wrapped up like a white boxing glove for a few weeks.

My husband stepped up and learned how to roll the ink onto the plate while I did the water sponging and handed him sheets of paper left-handedly, and he pulled quite a number of prints for me. It’s nice having a printmaking buddy! Those were the first prints he ever “made” and it was 3 years before he made another one!

I love lithography, but I don’t do it anymore. The drawing part is really fun and you can use a variety of techniques to put the image onto a plate or litho stone, but then you have to process the plate with a variety of chemicals, acids and solvents. This can be extremely hazardous, and you absolutely must have the proper ventilation and the means to take care of the rags and papers that are contaminated with the chemicals. Storage and disposal are critical issues. I choose to not be exposed to those hazards anymore, so I had to give it up.

Luckily I know a couple of exceptional printmakers who still do lithography and I can go to their studios to get the aluminum plates (I still have lots of litho crayons) and then they could print the plates for me. Perhaps one of these days an image will pop into my head that begs to appear as a litho and I’ll call my friends up. Stay in touch and I’ll let you know.

Yours in ink!
Martha