Ink plus

As I worked to put up last week's post I came across a few additional sketchbook pen pieces I thought might be interesting to discuss.

The little drawing on the left is an offhand doodle in which I played around with two pens, just checking possibilities and testing control. It included some typical snake-y shapes of the period but the rest meant nothing until this funny image grew. I started with an ordinary blue ink ball-point-pen then did some additional work with my Rapidograph #2 fine point.  I liked the dynamic look in the combination of two inks and in later pieces used the two ink idea to more advantage.

The one below, still just a sketch, is a combination of ordinary ball-point pen and, not ink, but #2 pencil.  I love the softness of the gray graphite more and more these days. There's a nice delicacy in it impossible to produce with even very fine pens. 

BTW, The Rapidograph was wonderful for extremely fine work but often needed refilling with its special ink. When it clogged, and that was often, you had to remove the tip with a special wrench, flush it out and when the tip was replaced you really had to work to restart the ink flow. I made some great drawings using a combination of various size nibs but in the end when disposable pens like the Steadtler Pigment liner came along it was just no contest! Aside from the clogging problems and the need to often add ink, the tips wore out and had to be replaced with new nibs, not exactly inexpensive!


This last one is more than just multiple marks. The snake-like cloud shapes above the plane are Rapidograph black ink plus some touches of color pencil. These drawings date back more than 35 years so I think it was early times of my using Prismacolor. It's hard to see here but the plane itself was drawn on a separate sheet, cut out and pasted into the sketchbook page with the clouds, -  collage, I guess!




Speaking of collage,  somewhere in an old portfolio is a very large ink drawing, 30x40 I think, made up of several different parts, all sewn together! To do it, I used high quality heavy rag paper which would support stitches without tearing.  It was very affective and made for an interesting look!

As you can see, there are many ways to approach drawing with ink and certainly at least as many creative ways to combine ink with other media.  It's all Fun Stuff -  So break a leg!



"Collage is the twentieth century's greatest innovation."   Robert Motherwell

"Different is better when it is more effective or more fun."   Timothy Ferriss

"It is our choices that show who we truly are, far more than our abilities."   J. K. Rowling

"Masque"

One of the greatest promoters of the visual arts here in the  Capitol district of  NewYork was Les Urbach, a veteran of Hollywood and Madison Avenue  who arrived here in the late sixties thinking he'd retired. Appalled by the lack of local appreciation for the visual arts and particularly the dearth of public support for local artists,  he lobbied the City of Albany to provide some kind of venue for exhibits.

At first he was only able to find funding for movable display units which could be set up in banks or other public spaces.  Later he was able to secure a lobby space in the Capitol District Psychiatric Center but after a short time there,  convinced "The-Powers-That-Be" to allow the conversion of what I believe was a public parking garage into a permanent gallery.  Christened "Albany Center Galleries",  it was a wonderfully large space easily appropriate for all manner of art.  Local artists loved it!  The vast space encouraged many to produce art larger than they'd done until then  This wonderful gallery, bouyed by Les's enthusiastic support launched the careers of many regional artists.

I was one who benefited from Les Urbach's strong interest in local artists. At the time I was president of a new association of University of NY connected artists.  "Graphic Artists Of New York", was a group particularly interested in printmaking and drawing; as wonderfully diverse a group as you can imagine.  Les was one of the first to give us a major show. It gave us the visibility needed to make us a strong presence in the larger community. Later we had a strong show which traveled nationally!


One of Les's favorite annual exhibits was  titled "Masque",  a show of artist designed masks (it may have been a Halloween inspired event) which were auctioned off during a benefit affair at the gallery. I believe this lively event was held annually for five or six consecutive years and contributed significantly to the gallery finances.  Here pictured are three that I did by cutting apart old prints or drawings and reassembling the elements as collaged "Masks", -  framed faces of a sort that more than satisfied Les's idea of a creative answer to the "Masque" challenge. These pieces along with a few others reside in the collections of area art lovers. One collector, a well known benefactor of local arts in general and Center Galleries in particular, successfully bid on several of my works over those years.


As an ardent advocate for any art medium, Les Urback could see worth in an artist's work and could fuel his or her ability to break out in new directions.  He was in a way, a one man show, but his influence lives on not only in the Albany Center Galleries, but in the memories of those he championed as he almost singlehandedly revived appreciation of the visual arts and artists of this area.

Les Urbach died in December, 1997.


"The mission of the artist ...... is to call the old magic back to life"  Tom Robbins

"What makes greatness is starting something that lives after you."  Ralph Stockman

The OLD days!

While most of my posts are B&W drawings, I like to have a good color piece here every 2nd or 3rd post, -  and every once-in-a-while I opt for "Something Completely Different"!  I've done Revues, How-To's, Personal History pieces, and more. This one is different again and definitely not drawing.

Once upon a time, back in the dark days before personal computers I was preparing to mount some holiday snap-shots in a photo album. They were "straight from the drug store" prints in ugly yellow envelopes with six inch negative strips included, - remember those?  I was trimming the prints to improve composition and was about to toss the small scraps into the trash when I saw that they were interesting in themselves. I fooled around for a few minutes, arranging, RE-arranging,  then with a minimum of false starts I butted them together, glued them down and trimmed the edges. I did several variations, stood them up on a small shelf to "live" with them for a while. I decided I liked most then tucked them into a folder.  They've been sitting there in the dark of that folder waiting for today's blog entry ever since!

So here, from the far reaches of (for some people) an almost unimaginable pre-tech past, a time devoid of anything digital, are a couple of those experimental photo collages.

The spare piece on left is proof of the old adage, "Waste not, want not."              There were a few tiny trim ends left over,  which when arranged well give us a plan for a sculptural piece, perhaps equal to any by George Ricky or David Smith.

                                       (Whoa! Talk about Ego!)

OK, I may have to take back that last bit about Ricky and Smith but you have to admit it's an interesting "short-cut" way to generate and explore visual ideas. I can envision a few variations that would produce some wonderful stuff.


Sometimes it's important to step out of your usual "rut" and just play around!

           

             



"Abstract art is part of the constant change and vital searching that energizes every true art"   Leonard Brooks