Pollos Mario

Mom and I found this mysterious note in the kitchen:


It's easy to drive there. Take Main (Montauk) to Fifth street, and turn left. Then drive until you see the goofy-looking chicken mascot on a big white sign. Don't let that mascot fool you; this is a very seriously good restaurant. Amaaaazing and abuuuundant food! Watch out for the green chile salsa in the dainty glass cup. It's atomic. They must shred raw jalépeños into this stuff...

Most of the staff speaks Spanish, so you know it's authentic food.

PHOTOS:

Spoils of war.

Mom demonstrates how tasty the leftovers are.

The only reason you wouldn't like this candy is if you don't like coconut.
¡¡¡SUPERCOCO!!!

...¡Mamá! ¡Ése es mi caramelo del supercoco! :-(

Don't Worry about the Blue Plate

Hey Nick and Elaina, I returned these to the ULAE.  Just thought I'd let you guys know while trying out some of the blog features.

I'm so cool...

A Word From...: Explore NYC on Foot!

I think the best way to do the City is by foot, definitely. You may think I'm crazy, but it's not as bad as you'd think. First thing you have to realize is that Manhattan is not that spread out. The city blocks are really short, so it's nothing to walk around. Walking is the best way to really discover the city. This past weekend Nick and I did a big loop of mid-east portion of Manhattan, from Union Square in the Flatiron District, through East Village, Lower East Side, China Town, Soho, Greenwich Village and back to Union Square.


This is the way to get the real NYC, to really see the people and soak up the atmosphere. So far, my favorite area of the City is Chinatown, but I'm partial to the international population. But the thing I like is that you can fool yourself into thinking that you're in China. It's surreal, and I love it. The markets are so cool. The old people are so cute. The streets are busy.

It's fun to hit up some of the famous places in New York, however, I'm starting to think they can't stand up to the hype. We went to Katz's Delicatessen in the Lower East Side. It's the place that's supposed to have the biggest sandwiches you've ever laid eyes on, the one in the movie "When Harry Met Sally". I'll tell ya, I wasn't thoroughly impressed. The menu "dares you to finish" one of their sandwiches, and with everything that Nick and I have seen about the place we decided to split one. Heck, it was just a normal sandwich. Although, I thought that maybe since New Yorkers eat less, this is a huge sandwich. But no, it was normal. Unfortunately, we didn't take a picture when the thing was whole, but we wanted to make sure we had some proof of our disappointment, so we took a shot near the end. It was an interesting place, but not worth the money in my opinion.


Walking is nice, but after a while you do start to get tired and then you can take the subway.The subways are probably our favorite thing about the city. They're so interesting. Most of the time we've been on the subway they haven't been too crowded, but every once in a while you'll get on a full one. Then it's really nice 'cause you're all crammed in, and hot and sweaty. Yea. I'm just glad it's not like the Japanese subway where they have officials to shove everybody in the trains. Next time we'll write about traveling the subway for your convenience and entertainment!

A Word From the Other Intern

I thought it would be nice to post something for myself, as the wife of the intern. Well, things aren't really that different for me here at the shop than they are for Nick, except that I take care of lunch, run errands, and do all the menial intern work so he can print. And that's fine, I enjoy it. I should be a master chef by the time I get back, with as much cooking as I do. I can definitely tell that my skills are getting better.

I am surprised at how I get home sick much more often than I thought I would. I can see how it would be really difficult at times to be here by yourself. Exploring the City would be a lot less fun. The Skidmore house would be really depressing. It can be a little spooky at times with the both of us here, especially when you're talking your laundry all the way up to the bedroom at 11:30 at night. You can give yourself the willies if you think about it too much. But enough about that. I'm gonna write a helpful entry for future reference.


Okay, let's talk about the shop, as far as what I know. The lunches I've been doing have been more like dinners; for example, today we had chicken and veggie kabobs on the grill, cucumber and tomato salad, basmati rice, pita bread, and peanut sauce with a spiced honey cake for dessert. But I have Nick to help me out some too. It is the intern's job to take care of lunch, or at least do the grocery shopping. For someone who doesn't like to cook or doesn't know how, lunch will be simple stuff like sandwiches, salads, soups, etc. But everyone in the shop likes the simple stuff, so there's not really any pressure there. They do like it when you "shop outside of the box" and buy things that aren't necessarily on the list. I pick up different fruits and Craisins, things that look good, and things I think people might like, and of course anything I needed for lunch. But there are two important things to keep in mind when shopping and planning meals: there are two vegetarians in the group, and everyone likes to eat really healthily.

A bit about spending. They are pretty lenient about spending, as long as you don't go crazy. They've said that a lot of interns don't know how to handle their spending because they've never been given free reign with a credit card. The limits on your lunch and dinner amounts are only caps, $12 and $20 respectively. So if you spend $25-$30 dollars on dinner once in a while, it's not a big deal, as long as you are being responsible with the rest of your spending. DON'T BUY ALCOHOL OR CIGARETTES OR ANY OTHER QUESTIONABLE MATERIAL WITH THE INTERN CREDIT CARD!!! Remember that it not only makes you look bad, it makes OSU look bad. I do have to say that having all your gas, train tickets, metro cards, groceries, etc. covered is a sweet, sweet deal.

Speaking of train tickets and metro cards, I'll tell you how that works, so you won't goof up like Nick and I did the first time we rode the Long Island Rail Road. When you go to the Babylon Train Station look for the vending machines that sell tickets and metro cards. This is where you buy the tickets for the train, and you can also buy a metro card for the subway (just look around for other people standing in line). A round trip ticket to NYC during off-peak hours is about $16, the metro card is $20. The first time Nick and I rode the train we didn't realize that the metro card is exclusively for the subway and you must buy a separate ticket for the train. You can buy a ticket on the train, but it costs more. It wasn't a big deal, but we felt a little stupid. Oh yeah, when you pay for parking at the train station, you do that at a little vending machine too. It's easy. They are located next to the stairs to the platform (you'll see what I mean when you get here). Surprisingly, the subways are extremely easy to use; just remember that Uptown = North and Downtown = South, and East to West = Small to Big (meaning you go from First Ave. in the East to 12th Ave. in the West). Never be afraid to bust out a map and figure out where you're going. A lot of people do it. I think there may be more tourists/non-locals in New York than locals.... Also, the City is very easy to walk; the blocks are really small and it takes no time to get from here to there. Brooklyn on the other hand..... But that's another story. Explore every chance you get! Remember, you only have 12 weekends to do all your sightseeing, and believe me, time flies.


Hmmm, what else...Oh yeah. I think we said it before, but the restaurants on Long Island are HORRIBLE. Seriously. Over priced and bad food. However, there is one good place called Pollos Marios (picture below), Columbian food, located north of Bay Shore (where ULAE is.) But it's difficult to find a good restaurant in the City too. Who knew? Maybe we're too picky (but probably not). It might sound hard to believe, but you'll get tired of eating out. It's nice to cook at home some, too. The best grocery store to go to (the most fun with the best products) is Fairway. If you like to shop for groceries, this is the place for you! Nick and I love it. It's probably about 20 minutes from the house on the highway. It's a lot of fun. Check out the website for more details: www.fairwaymarket.com There are a couple of grocery stores right around the corner from the house, though. The Stop & Shop has a RedBox Rental inside. A lot of times we'll rent a movie (don't use the intern credit card!) and either pick up something quick or make something at home, and have dinner and a movie night. Nice and relaxing.


One last thing, I think, and that is - Prepare yourself for how different it is up here. It really is different. The people are very different. It is like the movies. And I would have to disagree and say that NYC is not the friendliest big city. People are rude and inconsiderate. Of course there are the exceptions, but that's true everywhere. Generally speaking, I don't like New Yorkers (at least in the Metro area; maybe it's different Upstate). It's a different world up here folks, and the natives have never heard of Oklahoma. But I don't want you to get the impression that it's horrible, but I didn't know what it really would be like and it's always nice to know ahead of time.

Well, hopefully this will give you some good tips. We'll definitely put up more as we think of them or experience them.

We've only been here for two weeks...?

It seems a lot longer than that! Work at the shop is good. I keep busy helping the printers and Elaina takes care of lunch and cleaning up, and all that other stuff. We've been into the City several times now, and I have to say that it's starting to grow on me. The boroughs are cool. We've been to Chinatown, Little Italy, Chelsea (art district), and the Meat Packing District, which looks ritzy. We got to ride in a cab yesterday. It was crazy! That guy drove like a rally car racer. It was a little scary, but we got to see a lot of the City. It has a lot of charm. What doesn't have charm, though, are the restaurants. I think we've been to maybe two good ones so far: Joe's Shanghai in Chinatown and Hana Sushi in Chelsea. Joe's Shanghai is really good. They serve soup dumplings, delicious tender dumplings with meat and broth inside. Their food is fresh and the place is busy. Definitely worth visiting if you like Chinese food. Hana is not the best sushi ever, but it is good. The restaurant has a nice atmosphere, cozy and a lot like the pictures of little sushi places in Japan. We have noticed one thing, though; all the "Japanese" restaurants we see are really run by Chinese... Weird. I'll put up an "Eating Out" post later, with all the gritty details of the restaurants we've been to. Now it's time for the long weekend.

First post

Yes, we have arrived. Just finished up the first week here on Long Island. Everyone at the shop is really nice and they are like a big family. Went into Manhattan yesterday and was somewhat unimpressed, I guess once you've seen one big city you have seen them all. Went to MOMA, eh. Maybe I just have a little travel lag. Maybe the boroughs will be a little more up my ally, not high class, tourism, money and fakeness of Manhattan. I will enjoy the Farmers markets that are going to open next weekend, and expoloring the ethnic regions will be a blast.

Spring Intern Rewind (thus far):

UNIQUE NEW YORK:

My adventures into the city are usually limited to weekends - because the commute gets old (laughable to many ULAE employees who make it every weekday) and getting around manhattan really takes it out of you, especially if you travel to the boroughs as well. Here are a few of the highlights, in no particular order:

Museums (Covered by the studio!!! Go!) - I did the MoMa first, as it seemed the most exciting at the time, and it did have a really impressive spread of contemporary stuff, including work by many ULAE artists, and a great Lucien Freud etching exhibit.

However, I found the Met much more interesting and expansive. You could easily spend a week in there and never see it all. Plus - the Met is exhibiting a terrific Jasper Johns show which features many prints done by the studio, and one in particular that all of the current printers worked on. It focuses on his use of Gray though out his career - and emphasizes on lithographs, paintings and sculptures alike. I highly recommend this show - it is great homework for this internship. They also have a Gustave Courbet show up which is amazing.









This individual happened across our path in front of the Met one day. Charming!

The Guggenheim is a must - especially if you can catch the current show, detailed below.

The American Museum of Natural History of my p-fave. Again - I had to go twice to cover any ground, the place is huge. I saw the Bodies exhibit at South Street Seaport Science Museum - and found it quite compelling (though come to find out you can see a similar exhibit in any major city at this point.) The Museum of the American Indian at Bowling Green was really interesting too, though it is under construction. The Damian Hirst Installation at Lever House was amazing - though he is not liked amongst many in this crowd - and the sculpture outside is one of my favorite of his. It is adjacent to MoMa - so swing by if you're in that hood.













The scroll that Kerouac wrote on On The Road on is on display at the NY Public Library - an amazing sight to behold with a great display which chronologically studies his life in accordance with the writing.

I went to the Armory show at Chelsea piers this last weekend - a massive showcase of artwork sponsored by galleries from around the world. It was impressive in scale - but the content was mixed. It was an interesting way to gain perspective on the state of the art world (ie: lots of cheek kissing and too hip for you types.)















The guy with the sweet beard is ED, a printer at the studio, who I have befriended. We both dug that sculpture. Overall I really got a lot out of that experience. Scope NY was also going on that weekend - but I missed it sadly. I'm beginning to realize that my saturation point is rather low when it comes to modern art - especially current work.


Key museums left on my list are the Frick collection, the Whitney (currently showing the biennial), The New Museum at the Bowery, and PS1 at Long Island City (conveniently not located on Long Island.) The New Museum has "Hell Yes!" written on it in rainbow letters. MUST GO.


I had the pleasure of supporting a good friend from OK, Yatika Fields at his opening at Native American art show Long Island University (again, in Brooklyn.)

Go see some live music while youre here. Time Out New York delivers listings for a majority of shows - but act fast, I've missed a few due to selling out. I did luck into a spare ticket for The National at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music - a wonderful, classy venue), James Blackshaw at Soundfix - extraordinary twelve string guitarist from London, The RZA at Studio B, and Caribou with F**k Buttons at Music Hall of Williamsburg. All great shows at very different venues.


CARIBOU


F**CKBUTTONS

Every live act you could dream of seeing will be here at some point, so keep your eyes peeled, but pick wisely - this can get expensive, and this kind of thing is not covered by the studio. Lots of shows are free - especially during the summer.

My parents spent four lovely days with me here, and I had the pleasure of showing them around Manhattan, Central Park, Jones Beach on Long Island, Battery Park and South Street Seaport. They also got a sizeable dose of the NY transit system and the Village. I also took them to the studio and gave them a tour of the facilities there. I consider myself lucky that two Johns and a Rauschenberg series are both in the works at this time (Though I find it depressing just how few people know those names when shamelessly name dropping about my recent shop work.)

One thing I will truly miss about this place is the food. One can eat very well, healthily, and for a reasonable price in most of Manhattan and Brooklyn - Time Out will help you with this too. In Brooklyn, Greenpoint Cafe, Enid's, Taco Chulo - all great for brunch. In Manhattan - Prune is an absolute must, Anthony Bourdain loves it, and it's just unbeatable for lunch or dinner. Also Green Bo in Chinatown for great Dim-Sum. Be adventurous - you can get anything here - and if you keep it reasonable the studio pays for it. You could eat at a different restaurant in this city every day for the rest of your life and never do them all.

I have tried to cram as much into my time here as i can stand - but honestly, NY is really overwhelming for me. Part of it was just learning to get around, but being an hour from your homestead is stressful too. But a some point I had to just go for it if i ever was going to - and it's worth it to see Times Square, Broadway, Central Park - and really take advantage of the things that are truly unique about this place. Granted - you could never do it all in one internship - but it's fun to try. Get familiar with a subway line and hit all the stops along that line first. Know that Uptown means the street numbers get higher and Downtown means they are getting smaller. That's half your battle. But for god's sake get an NFT guide! More later.

A Crash Course In Litho

Having reached the half way point, I realize that I am desperate to make a print. I have learned a lot from working here, but it doesn't mean to much if I can't put it to use. Actually producing work here requires a fair amount of persistence - but luckily, I have gotten a lot of help during slow periods - and last week I ran my first litho print. The following is a loose outline of what I've learned about lithography. I feel like I've come a long way considering that I knew nothing when I arrived here. I's a complicated chemical process, with lots of steps - but it all
revolves around the principle that water and oil repel each other. The process i describe here involves printing directly from a limestone block. Lithography is derived from the Greek word "Lithos" - stone (or from stone), and is a very old and effective method of printing from a smooth surface to paper. However - in order to print effectively - the stone must be completely flat and totally smooth. Thus, before anything else, the stone must be grained, a process by which any previous image or "ghost" is removed from the face of the rock. This is done using a levigator - a heavy round tool which is spun across the surface of the stone after grain has been applied. The process is akin to sanding wood in that you start with a coarse grit and work your way to a fine dust - eventually polishing the surface. No scratches or rough spots can remain, as they will retain ink during printing.




Here is a stone during graining. A small stone like this can take several hours to grain if it isn't flat. It must be absolutely flat or the contact press will miss areas of the drawing that are low.




The grains run from 50 to 280, but the stones I have grained run through 60 to 80, 100, 150, 180, 200. It's a long process, but nothing is worse that getting almost finished and picking up a stray coarse grain on the levigator and scratching your rock. This means virtually starting over. At one point, I was assigned to grain several stones at 5:00 pm to be ready for Carroll Dunham at 8:00 the next morning. At the end of a work day this is the last thing you want to hear - but it is a reality of the print studio. So, putting a scratch in one of these at 9:00 pm would make me real sad.



The stones are then marked and set aside for the artist. It generally takes much longer to grain the stone than it does to draw on it.



A drawing is done with either Litho crayons (a range of soft and hard, waxy drawing pencils), touche (a water soluble waxy paint, which applies like water color and acts as a resist to water) or a combination of both. You can achieve some really cool things with touche - which reticulates as it dries, making some really nice solid washes, which can be manipulated with crayons as well. The thicker you apply these elements the thicker the resist will be and the darker your image will appear.



Moving these stones is a real pain - and sometimes they are just too heavy.



Here is my image. Before etching, talc and resin are dusted onto the stone to cause the ink to thicken. Some of the drawing is wiped away during etching - an important but difficult lesson. Regardless - the resist is so strong once applied that the subtleties re-emerge when inking. Drawing on these is fun - but you cannot erase. So be sure of your image and go gently. Here, gum has been applied to cool the etch, and preserve the stone while it is not in use.


My print will likely be a one block, black and white image - though I could add drawings to include color stones or plates to be done on the offset press. the Carroll Dunham prints pictured below include several stones for each print. registering them gets tricky, especially because the stones are all different sizes, and some have multiple small drawings on them. Each is a different color and represents a different portion of the image. All these elements are matched up with the key drawing - or in this case the black part of the drawing that has the most information in it, which is printed onto a mylar. The mylar helps indicate where the paper must lay each time the image is printed so that all the images match up, and every sheet looks exactly the same as the original proof.



Each stone has a proof of the image covering it to protect the drawing and identify which part of the image is on which rock. All of these separate elements add up to make the final product, pictured right.



A leather roller is used on many stones to ensure that the image retains the maximum amount of ink without drying the surface of the stone. During inking, the stone must be wet enough to repel the oil based ink from every part of the stone that doesn't have pencil or touche on it.



Here is the stone on the press, and after being inked to capacity. Asphaltum and tannic acid are used to cause the greasy drawing ares to retain ink effectively. The press bed beneath the stone must be totally clean - even a hair beneath the pressure of the contact press can cause a stone to crack. Inking lightly first, and then to heavy, the image comes up rather slowly.



This stone is ready to run through the press, and have proofs pulled from it. It will darken as the the first several proofs are run, and then the amount of ink and pressure can be adjusted to best suit the image quality. Spot etching can be done to increase the amount of detail in reticulation or heavy wash areas. In this case only the very darkest parts of the image need to be re-etched. To add to the drawing, you can counter etch the stone and add more drawing - but aside from small sanding areas, drawn areas cannot be removed.



You can see the progression as the ink builds up on the stone. At this point - unless I decide to further alter the image, this stone is ready to run prints from.

If I ever get the opportunity, I would like to run a small edition of this print, as I am pretty happy with it considering it is my first attempt. Some areas are light - but overall it looks a lot like my drawing after being run on paper. It will darken further, and look much better on white paper. will include an image of this work when I have a decent proof of it - but here is a poor consolation prize:




As I said - you must be persistent to get your own work done. Make it known from day one that you want to make prints and get started on them right away. I started week three, and this is as much as I've gotten done. You will need the help of printers to work in the studio - so buddy up. Otherwise, you will run errands and wash dishes the whole time - and it might not feel worth it.

I'm sure many have wondered why I haven't included any of my NYC adventures here, so that will be my next blog. Suffice it to say: I have done a lot, but could never do it all in four months. Plan things ahead of time! Make use of your weekends! Time Out NY is a great way to keep up with cool stuff going on in the city. Galleries and Museums are free - so that has been a bulk of my experience. More about that later.

An Intern Reflects!

Being an intern can be hard on the soul - but but keeping a certain perspective on things makes all the difference.



The forklift at the studio has Mr. Goldston's 1984 Oklahoma tags on it. You might not be the butt of any Oklahoma jokes - but I would be shocked if you weren't. I have to admit, Oklahomans must seem pretty peculiar to this crowd.

Not much visual aid this week, or rather, what there is has little to do with the text. Suffice it to say I've been much busier and involved in the goings on at ULAE, so photography takes a backseat, and you get tasty leftovers that I couldn't fit in previous blogs.

It might be advantageous to discuss a few things I've noticed about this place, and the art world at large. I will try to keep this as positive as possible. Becoming more involved has led me to realize what a blessing an art related job such as this can be. If there is any single thing I have learned from this experience it is that there is life beyond art school. One simply must know where to look, and be willing to pay one dues. Certainly, this won't put anyone on a faster track to making it big as a visual artist, but it depends on how you use the facilities at your disposal, and put what you learn as a printer to use. The level of professionalism exercised at this shop has forced me to work on my own precision and attention to detail. It has effected the quality of my own work immensely, and my attitude towards art making in general. Then of course there is the development of new skills and familiarization with new aspects of the trade - but this will take years. Many printers here have a specialization, but broaden into other areas out of necessity in producing large editions of a certain type. Just in standing by and being a nuisance I have gotten a crash course in litho, aquatint, intaglio, and photogravieur. As I understand it, every studio has it's own methods in each area, so it isn't surprising that they do things differently here than at Gemini, or Tandem (or OK State).




A pile of broken lithographic stones sit behind Skidmore Place.

The downside of course is that the pressure is immense at times, and putting any of this knowledge to use in personal projects might be hard to do. Deadlines on large editions change at a moments notice, artists drop in to check on their work, or to create new work, and the level of craftsmanship cannot falter due to shortage of time. There is a lot of money involved here, so keeping it cool and staying focused is important. Things must be done right - and there is an enormous number of variables that ensure that things will go wrong. I have already noticed a decrease in my enthusiasm, though I chock most of it up to being the intern, and wading in the muck at the bottom of the heap. Some days I feel like a printer, and am treated as such - and other days I am DEFINITELY the intern. I am constantly reminded of my place. The other thing that I picked up on rather quickly is that many of the people who work here commute and hour or an hour and a half and the beginning and the end of each day. I thought at first it was just stubbornness - insisting to live in Brooklyn because of the cool factor. But I can honestly say that I never want to live on Long Island again in my life. There is no one above high school age or below mid forties that lives here as far as I can tell, and thus there is very little to do. I find myself, as well, living for the next chance to get into Manhattan or Williamsburg or Park Slope. So - if the printers seem grumpy, just imagine yourself in their position. It's a great job, but it is also a lot of baggage and stress.



A shot from the front room of Skidmore. On a nice days, Skidmore can be a lovely place to be.

It can be tremendously rewarding some days, and other days it can make you feel like dirt. I guess this aspect of being a working stiff has always eluded me - and I can honestly say I miss college a lot already. However - it has been a huge eye opener as to how the art world works, and as to what goes on behind the scenes. One printer said that he went to to Met to see the new Jasper Johns "Gray" exhibit, which featured many prints that he himself had pulled and handled. However his name is nowhere on that sheet of paper. Only Johns'. Not surprisingly, most of the notable artists who work with ULAE haven't set foot in Bayshore in years, but still have their prints editioned here. Is it right or wrong? I don't know - it just is. I know that part of the thrill of making prints for me is actually making the prints. I like to be involved in every step of the process - but I am not a famous artist, and if I were I can hardly say that I wouldn't let ULAE edition my prints for me and sell them for big money. I can't say it doesn't sound appealing. It is still awe inspiring to be in the presence of such history and legacy - but if I hadn't come out here to do this I may never have realized that such a place existed. I always thought the art and the artist were inseparable - as naive as it sounds - but it makes complete sense that the thing that can drive the two apart should be the almighty dollar. I might sound jaded - but I'm totally comfortable with it - not that it's up to me. It's just been a real eye opener. Strangely though - this awesome opportunity has really helped me reconcile with my decision to go into the arts. It is always breathing down my neck - what comes after school? Do I really expect to make a living on paintings? In a culture driven by media, fast news, flashing lights and dwindling attention spans, do I really expect to get anyone's attention? The average time a gallery goer takes to look at a painting is less than 3 seconds. The art world is subsequently very tough and fickle, and riddled with nepotism and politics - and all of these things should inform the student of the arts about the path before him. While there is a strange, naive comfort in being the penniless underdog, sticking to his genuine artistic ideals and creating meaningful but misunderstood work only to be praised after his death - seeing what these printers do gives me a great deal of hope and optimism. I can see myself in a job like this one day, becoming a master of a respectable trade, and living off of it in order to feed myself while kicking the dream around. There is one printer here who I relate to on this level - and he uses all of his time outside of the studio to create his own work. He makes use of the facilities at Clinton, and produces really nice work. I see this as an admirable use of his occupational situation - though the trade offs are great (he resides in Bayshore) he is still on track to a career as a professional artist. Being close to NYC with a stable income is a tremendous asset to this goal, because if there's one thing NYC has, it's money, where there's money there is much more likely to be an art market. Culture is one thing that New York is not shy of - and for a county boy like me, that's real derned excitin'.



Studio at Skidmore is like a litho library documenting the presence of people like Motherwell, Frankenthaler, Dine and Oldenberg. The litho images of their work are, by and large, untouched.

For a great bit of history and an awesome photo essay about ULAE - make sure to check
out their new website: http://www.ulae.com

Continued Studio Misadventures

Having done a bit of etching at OSU didn't hurt - but they things are done here are a bit different. Once again, I was able to pick up a lot and stand in from time to time, until I was trusted with more involved tasks. Here is a run down - again, in no particular order - of my involvement in the etching process during the first month.



Ed, a printer from Norman, OK, staples a freshly printed Terry Winters to a wooden panel to ensure that is dries completely flat and even. Straps are used around the edges of the sheet to protect the surface, and the wood has a thick plastic sheet under it so the back of the sheet is not compromised either. These are very expensive prints, so great lengths are taken to ensure that they make it to the edition in pristine condition.



Ed lays a plate on the press for the last run on a Winters print. The prints are registered by ticks around the outer edge of the plate which line up with a grid on mylar. There were three prints in the particular edition - but the portfolio consists of ten different prints at 60 sheets each.



This is where paper gets soaked, and then drained when the screen is raised. It is then blotted before use. Damp paper draws more of the ink from the etched plate than a dry sheet.



Ed and Jason ink an enormous Kiki Smith plate. The plate is set on a hotplate and ink is applied to it while warm, which helps the ink settle into the deeply bitten areas of the plate. Excess ink is then removed from undesired areas with tarletans, cotton wipes and a fine paper which picks up ink from the plate without removing it from etched areas. This process is done before every print is run.



Here, a print is being run. This is truly a two man job - as the plate is very heavy and akward to move, and each printer must pull the wool blankets snug as the print runs underneath the roller, because any crumpling or creasing could be disasterous. I have spent many morings at the laundromat cleaning these blankets. (Incidentally, Planet Laundry is the place to go - an impressive facility as far as laundromats are concerned. Don't forget the Woolite!)



The printers move the plate from the hotplate to the press bed. Shiny!



Before any printing begins, the plate undergoes a process called "Steel Facing." During which, the plate is fully immersed in rust filled water. The water is highly ionized, and highly conductive. While one end of the plate is connected to a power source (pictured below) a long steel pole, also charged is run across the surface of the plate. The pole never touches the plate, but the plate draws ionized steel particles to its surface during the several hundred passes it undergoes, and comes out coated in a very durable metal which will hold up to many more runs through the press that a plain copper plate. This is a painstaking process - but fortunately is only done before printing begins, unless the steelfacing begins to break down, in which case printing must be stopped, and the plate stripped and refaced, making everyone quite grumpy.



Do't let this image fool you. This really isn't very much fun.



The plate must be washed with marble powder, ly and nitric acid to remove the existing steel facing, should a new face need to be applied.



Here is the power source. The Kiki plates were to big for the facing tank you see in the back, so the flat bath was used. Were it a smaller plate, it would simply be suspended it the tank for a decided length of time, and the charged poles and hangers would do all the facing work.



Here is the plate after steel facing, which would be printed from the following morning. You can see it apears silver, but that is really just a sheen of protective steel. When this plate was etched it still apeared copper. Behind it you see two large aquatint boxes - an area I hope to investigate while I'm here. Anyway - from the last two posts you can see tht simply making yourself available makes the days go by a lot faster. The more you hang out in the office, the errands you wil run. (You will still run errands.) Days where I am busy helping and learning make for a happy intern. And the more i have helped and shown enthusiasm, the more responsibilities I have been given, which feel really good.