The Ramblings Of Linden Langdon

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One Month Panic Mark

Wednesday 29, September

Wednesday has been a messed up day all year, with meetings morning and afternoon that basically make it impossible to get into the 'arty zone'. Added to that is the seemingly inevitable drowsiness that takes over when you've been sitting for hours listening to people talk. So Wednesday is a right-off so far as getting some work done, and this Wednesday was also the day we were all reminded of the short length of time we have left to achieve our goals for the year. I've booked a gallery space in the union building (ahhh finally I get something for my hundreds and hundreds of union fee dollars) for the 20th - 22nd October where I will be able to hang my work and contemplate what goes into the final assessment and do that 'all important' documenting of the images. That leaves two weeks to make final adjustments (here's hoping it isn't start again...), one week to finalise my paper and also work out where and how everything will be set up for the assessment. One piece goes into the Plimsoll gallery.... can you tell I'm stressing? Oh ok, just sit back, have a gin and let time take its course...

Naomi Howard

Tuesday 28, September

Lifelong relationships are often missing in peoples lives, but I am fortunate to have a few friendships that have developed through childhood and continued. I have previously talked about Sally Curry, but Sally is one of three sisters we had contact with. Naomi has two daughters, both a little younger than me, but we managed to have a good time as childhood friends regardless. Mostly I remember their incredible smiles, stretching from ear to ear in a most shy and sensitve way, their faces framed by white blonde hair (real blonde as only a real blonde would know) and playing in their Grandmothers garden. Of course artistic talent has oozed from the family, and Naomi is no exception. I recently bought a painting from her exhibition 'Watershed' and it hangs above my computer desk, where I spend so many hours, and reminds me that there are memories of place and places of memory that make up my present day being.

Skirt Two On Laid Back Sunday

Sunday 26, September

After reaching the pit of stress for achieving high jumps over self constructed bars I have decided to make weekends the time for traditional values and quality time at home. How long I can maintain it is another thing because high jumping is a kind of addictive sport even if it is only a metaphor! Anyway, after scrounging through my basket of fabric offcuts I found a piece that my sister gave me a couple of years ago which was just enough to run up a simple skirt. She has excellent taste for clothes and that extends to her choice in fabric. She made herself a dress from this one nearly 12 years ago and it still has the quality and bold colour statement it had then. Actually I was motivated to sew again after browsing through the shops to find something for summer and finding that the quality of the fabric was a 'wear one season and toss' which conflicts with my (perhaps) idealistic outlook on resource use. And I thought resource awareness and management was trendy these days... I guess the fashion industry was overlooked in this debate.

Scatterbrain Friday

Friday 24, September

Sometimes I think I would have been better to stay in bed and let the day roll by, but of course that is never really an option, so time to put on the brave face and tackle the dramas! It often happens to me on a Friday - dropping things, forgetting things, leaving things behind and generally making a big mess of stuff! Luckily the most important things worked out ok - first pre-print run of a new image went well, but thankfully I don't have to risk burning or cutting myself in the kitchen tonight as Steve is coming over to cook, and I'm banned from the kitchen! Aahhh, scatterbrain Friday roll on...

Sugar Lift Etching Final

Wednesday 22, September

So now comes the final bit when you see your image etched into the plate. Firstly the plate needs to soak in some warm water, which dissolves the sugar and lifts the bitumen that covers it. Sometimes the sugar needs a little gentle encouragement to come away from the plate, and I usually use a finger or some soft paper for this. After cooling the plate with cold water, its ready to go into the acid. I won't pretend to know anything about the acid, but the link on the last blog should lead you down that path if your interested. All I know is that the potency of the acid determines how long you leave the plate in, and a lung full of the fumes can send your head into a spin. The uni set up for the acid baths has an enclosed area with a very efficient extractor fan that saves us from a short life span!

Sugar Lift Etching Step Two

Tuesday 21, September

Applying the sugar lift is just a matter of painting in the areas that you want to be exposed to the acid bite, and therefore the areas that will retain ink. I usually make my sugar lift by simmering water and adding sugar until it reaches saturation point, although I hear that the microwave is an easy option for this step. Add ink and a little detergent to make a visible and fluid mix. Adding other elements to the mix can influence how smoothly the solution is applied and lifts. I found some information and a recipe at Polymetaal which seems to be a good resource. I must admit to being uninventive in this area, as I have stuck to using the basic mix. The plate is then left to mostly dry, although I find it is always a bit tacky, then a layer of bitumen is painted over it. The density of the bitumen determines whether or not the acid will be able to bite through to the plate, so if you want to have a few subtle marks showing add some white spirits to the bitumen. So now it has to dry again before the etch!

Alleyplant

Monday 20, September

Alley is the younger of our two dogs and still full of cheeky character that makes her oh so endearing and and oh so trying! Her latest trend is to want to get up as high as she can and check out what the neighbour is up to - with a bit of encouragement from the neighbour in the form of last nights chops... While this can be an innocent enough act, my pot plants have fallen victim to her quest for greater height, crushed under her bottom and mulched under her claws! At least the tulips managed to bloom despite her best efforts! Alley, your a beast...

Sugar Lift Etching Steps

Monday 20, September

Looking back I see that I have been a bit vague in my description of the sugar lift etching process, so I thought I'd do it step by step for fun and interest! The first step is to prepare the plate. I use steel plates, which need to be sanded with two fine grades of sandpaper to create a smooth surface to receive the image. You can skip this if you want a rougher surface. Its important to clean the plate as well, and I use white spirits for this. Further cleaning can be done with whiting mixed with clear ammonia and rubbed over the plate surface, then rinsed off. Its also good to prepare the back of the plate at this stage, especially for the larger plates that I have been working with as it becomes cumbersome after the image has been applied. So for the back, it needs to be cleaned with white spirits and then coated with bitumen, or for a less toxic application covered with contact. So thats the first bit!

Boiled Fruit Cake For Ross

Saturday 18, September

Ross is coming for a visit at the end of the year and I'm already thinking about the fruit cake we share a hunger for! I can't justify making a whole cake just for little ol' me, and Ross is the only one in the family who fangs into it like me! Oh come on - its full of wholesome fruit...I won't get fat...promise!

• Boiled Fruit Cake
• 125g butter
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 cups mixed fruit, of your own choice
• 1 tsp nutmeg and mixed spice
• 1 tsp bi-carb
• 1/4 cup sherry or whatever, can use juice or a bit of extra milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup plain flour
• 1 cup self raising flour

Put butter, milk, sugar, fruit and spices in a pan and bring it up to a gentle boil for 5 minutes. Cool slightly and then add the sherry with the bi-carb dissolved in it. When mixture is really cool, add eggs and beat well, then the flours. Cook in a moderate oven for about one and a half hours, depending on the shape of the tin you use! Hurry up Ross!

Corinne Costello

Friday 17, September

Corinne has been studying part-time to complete her honours, and so she is part of the same group as me and will be finishing in November. Her gentle feminine, but strong, personality seeps through her work producing imagery that draws from history and currently essentially female issues. Her drawing ability is exceptional and lithography has been her primary method of printmaking. Work from 2003 has featured at the Handmark Gallery in Salamanca for the last year or so, and the success she has had with it has been well deserved.

Photogram Fun And Admiration

Thursday 16, September

Researching for my paper and inspiration for my art led me to revisit the photogram. I have only done basic training in black and white photo development and printing, so playing with a few flowers to create some prints with my daughter a couple of years ago was very exciting at the time! This little venture pales into insignificance when I looked into Anne Ferran. Her beautiful images breathe life into inanimate objects through the careful exposure of light. There was also a link to a site that gives an excellent description of the process, and inspiration for me o have another go!

Back In The Pool

Tuesday 14, September

Finally I got back into the pool again. Its hard to break the 'it's too cold' thought pattern and plunge into the just warm enough water. After growing up spending vast amounts of time swimming I can't help but wonder how I managed to get so bad at it! Surely I used to be able to do laps of freestyle without turning into something resembling a beetroot? I managed 12 laps, with my Kmart $1 bargain bikini bottom floating perilously about, and can feel the muscles in my shoulders telling me all about it! Not good enough Lindylou!

Present today were testosterone charged boys doing their backflips and dozens of kids enjoying their school holiday. Absent was the excessive number of obese kids that used to dominate the scene. Seems that there are still a handful of youths blowing their bodies out of proportion, but the majority were slim and active in full childhood mode. Gone were the large number who used to border on obesity, so maybe the message is getting through?

Lindsay's Wonderful Laugh

Monday 13, September

The honours printing area backs onto the drawing studio with a narrow corridor in between. Lindsay Broughton is the senior lecturer for drawing, and he has the skills to stay in that spot as long as he wants! His drawings blow me away, both in technique and scale, plus he has a wonderful warm and generous personality that bubbles through the wall as a honey soaked beat. Perhaps oneday I will be able to study the extensive art of drawing under his direction, but for now (uni restrictions) I can only wonder. His students this year seem to be pushing the medium to the max with huge works pouring out. This image was from an exhibition at the Plimsoll Gallery in response to the construction of the Henry Jones Art Hotel. The little bit of arm on the left gives you an idea of the scale. Lindsay Broughton is of course very well known.

Michael Schlitz

Sunday 12, September

Sometimes watching someone develop a group of prints can have a voyeuristic feel to it, do they really mind me looking? Actually I think Michael enjoyed the company on the occasions we met up in the print room. It became a dance of printroom etiquette as he was using the press I need for my larger plates, and despite his obvious superior experience and talent he had to concede that as an current honours student, and he being a past student, I had right of way... not that I ever insisted on that! It was far more beneficial to me to watch his technique and glean snippets of the experience he has gathered through time and residencies. It was excellent to find this collection is now in the Bett Gallery stockroom, so for the first time I can see them as the finished products rather than the works in progress. Having been my teacher for a semester, I have learnt to have plenty of time to learn from Michael.

Sensual Man Ray

Saturday 11, September

I found a new magazine at the newsagent today - titled Gallery, it is a production of the National Gallery of Victoria. This months cover has those fabulous floating lips that seem to be iconic as a Man Ray. His beautiful black and white photographs, using techniques that I can only imagine, were produced in the early half of the 1900's and for me they speak loudly of a sensuality that is absent from so much of the modern works in the same genre. In her article 'In Black And White, Man Ray' Susan van Wyk describes his work with the nude as being thoroughly researched in a historical context as well as delving into experimental visions. She writes, 'His solarised nudes, in which the figure appears variously outlined by glowing linear bands or randomly reversed, are both beautiful and enigmatic. His images are sometimes disturbing, but nearly always unforgettable.' (Wyk, S., 2004). Be worth having a browse through the exhibition if your in the vicinity!

This website has a huge range of his work, and with all the copyright threats I'm too nervous to put a photo up here, so this site is an excellent place to browse. He was most certainly a very prolific artist.

New Skirt One

Saturday 11, September

Well I finally got around to sewing up this fabric I bought months ago. It was supposed to be my winter skirt - bright colour to blow away the drab winter greys and blacks that everyone wears in Tasmania! But as it happens I have only just hit the sewing machine as spring sprung and as I was wandering about the shops in town yesterday I discovered that pastels and whites are in this summer....bugger! Oh well, I'm sure I will get to wear it anyway.

Spring Fever

Thursday, 9 September

While spring means breaking out the tissues and hankies for many, to me it sparks up an adrenalin rush that is best put to use around the home. Yep, spring clean time....ho hum. Also it is when I break out the sewing machine to make a new dress or skirt to welcome the sunshine. Its a great buzz to walk around in a skirt after months of jeans and see the raised eyebrows of those alarmed at a little leg flesh showing! Tut tut. Walking the dogs takes on a new life as I shed the layers of jumpers, beanies and scarves to step out through the cascade of spring blossom drifting from the trees. Ahhh - bring it on!

Ageless Not Ageist

Wednesday, 8 September

Having children who are now young adults can sometimes make this little lady feel like she should snuggle into some flanny pj's and suck down infinite mugs of coffee. But looking around at the struggle many young people are faced with in their health, lifestyle and relationships she can't help but feel that the flannies are a long way off yet! There's plenty of flex in these here bones yet! But speaking of my beautiful fmaily, it's about time I linked to my oldest daughters page, part of her partners site. Amy has done a few stints at hair modelling and put together this site for a uni project. Her partner Martin recently did a great job of revamping his site.

Screenprint And Text Options

Tuesday, 7 September

Adding text to images is not necessarily about having something to read and more often than not is melded into the image overall. I must admit to being a bit naive when it comes to using text, though I know some people delve into it at great depths. I have used several methods for adding text, and today I went back to good old screenprinting for a sharp and accurate reproduction. The photo emulsion is applied to the screen and the text exposed onto it through light (I hear rumours this can be done in sunlight, but I'm a bit sceptical about the Tasmaniain sun...) creating open areas of very close detail once it is washed out.

A favourite method of mine for text is a hard ground etching. I usually use bitumen as the ground, and then go over printed text, pressing hard through the paper into the ground. I have gone over this with a sharp tool, or left it with parts showing and others not for a rougher effect. Of course plates are reversed when they are printed, so the text has to be applied backwards if you want it to show the right way round! Handwriting can be a real mind twister for this!

Leonie Oakes

Sunday, 5 September

My first experiences of art school were through the excursions organised by Raymond Arnold. Two units were offered across schools to be part of the Natural Environment and Wilderness Studies major I was doing. The excursions ventured into the extremes of the Tasmanian landscape and gave participants a close encounter with both the natural evolution and human intervention. Leonie was also also a student on these trips and I soon grew to appreciate her extensive knowledge of printmaking and her bookmaking. Creating books is undoubtedly her passion, and her calm demeanour extends to carefully mastered forms that reflect the great depth of research and understanding of both her subject matter and presentation.

The Simple Things In Life

Saturday, 4 September

After more than a week of the server being down and complications in getting my site back online I finally find myself back at the blog! Spring has slipped sublimely into my conscious thought as the flower buds burst with enthusiasm. It draws me back to the simplest forms and actions of nature and rekindles a passion that must be prehistoric.

Frida Kahlo expressed a passion for her natural environment and her bodily presence within it in many of her works. Her 1932 lithograph El Aborto depicts the emotional trauma of losing a baby, while acknowledging the natural process of the cycle of life. In paying homage to Kahlo's direct depiction of this most basic natural function, my lastest lithograph refers to the frustration of a male perspective on procreation.

So it's back to uni on Monday for me, having had a week of printing in the art school studio with little disturbance as most people had the sense to head off for the week and recharge the batteries. My final exhibition date is looking all the more daunting as we round the curve at the top of the hill and speed headlong into battle with supervisors and assessors.