in the news
Rob Newell photo – North Shore Outlook newspaper
Caption reads: Stroking Silence – Marja-Leena Rathje presents “Silent Messengers”, a collection of mixed media prints in the studio gallery at Capilano College…..
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by Marja-Leena by Marja-Leena frustration
Most of my prints for my exhibition are completed to my great satisfaction, but one has been giving me some trouble! It is the transparency layer for another Silent Messengers: Hoodoos. I’ve been proofing it a few times with successive adjustments and improvements. Today it took me four hours to get one print because of some problem with sending the file to the printer. This entailed several restarts of printer and computer and much impatient waiting. The resulting print proof still needed some more work which I’ve just now finished. So it’s back to the printer in the morning, with hopes that “Lucy” (our pet name for the printer) will be more cooperative! Wish me luck.
Some say that working with computers and printers are prone to problems. Actually, even hand printed work can sometimes be frustrating, maybe with getting the right colour, the right technique of wiping the ink, the right paper and pressure, and so on. It’s all about proofing whether it’s a traditional print or an inkjet.
I still have to finish trimming the prints, attach the layers to each other, sign and document them. Even if I don’t get the entire set in each edition done, but have one of each ready for the show, I can finish doing that later after the show is hung.
Yesterday I was in the rather uncomfortable role of photographer’s model! I’ve never enjoyed having pictures taken of me! One of the North Shore newspapers sent a photographer to take photos of me in front of some of my prints for their arts page, for which I’m very grateful of course. He was patient and friendly and made me relax, so we shall see how that turns out.
It has amazed me how much creative energy I have maintained the past two months. This morning I woke up naturally before 5:00 am, and was in the studio a bit after 7, but the frustrations today have felt stressful. I’m going out for a vigorous walk in the rain now!
by Marja-Leena exhibition invitation
You are invited to come to the opening of my exhibition! I’d love to meet you local bloggers and readers!
Silent Messengers: mixed media prints
Opening: November 16th, 4:30 – 8:00p.m.
Studio Art Gallery, Capilano College**
2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver
The exhibition is on from November 16th to December 7th, 2004.
Gallery hours: 10am – 4pm Monday – Friday
(or by appointment – email me)
Note: If you need directions to the Studio Art Building, please email me and I can send you a PDF map. It’s a 1.5 MB file, too big to upload here, and you probably need a fast connection to receive it. OR if you send me your address, I will mail you the card which has a map on the back.
I’ll keep reposting this so that it stays on the main page.
Addendum: To find your way to the North Vancouver Capilano College** campus, check out Google maps. Thanks for the tip, J!
** now University
by Marja-Leena progress
Can you believe it’s November already? What a busy and creative fall I’m having, with great progress on the list of things to do for my exhibition, which opens two weeks tonight!
The new works are almost done. Silent Messengers: Hoodoos IV and V are nearing completion as I’m about to proof the transparency layers tomorrow, make adjustments if needed, then edition these. The other five, still unnamed, smaller pieces are ready to be editioned. I’m really excited how they are all coming together. Along with previously completed works, I will likely put up about 20 pieces.
The business end of things is heating up with the invitations (which turned out great!) now in my hot little hands. My address list is still not up to date, having lost it somehow (a backup oversight?) when we bought this computer last February, so that’s a bit of a muddle. As for the posters, I need to contact the designer to see how that’s coming. The magnets that I will use to hang the work got ordered online last night from Lee Valley since I don’t have time after all to drive out there. All the rest is paperwork and I’ll get to it as soon as the prints are done, probably by the weekend.
My thoughts are leaping forward to how I might arrange the work in the gallery, the photography, the food and beverages for opening night. Later I will need to set up proper lights and cameras to take some good installation photos and document the work both in slides and digitally. And I’m already thinking about the next new pieces!
The beauty of having a solo show for me, and for most artists I’m sure, is to see a larger body of one’s work hanging on the walls, to really see what one has been doing over a period of time and how it all works together, and thus learn a bit more about what the work is really about. I also look forward to the feedback from visitors and my fellow artists.
by Marja-Leena Happy 5th Birthday
To Lael, our lovely little grand-daughter! We love your costume – are you the Ice Queen? You look very happy in the photos that were taken on Sunday at your Birthday-Halloween party with your little friends. We really look forward to the family celebration this evening! See you soon, Love from Opa and Mummi!
by Marja-Leena life is art
Actually life keeps interfering with art these days! I spent Friday preparing for houseguests, some good friends from Winnipeg on their way home from a holiday on Vancouver Island. We had a wonderful visit. After they left on Saturday, a gorgeous sunny day, we started to prune some trees in the backyard to keep a good neighbour happy and to give more breathing space and light to our adjacent rhododendrons and camellia. It was a big job continuing into the next day, with my husband high up in the cedars and yours truly nearby chopping up branches to a manageable size to be taken to the green recycling depot. In between, I was happy to tackle the long overdue job of cutting down some perennials and doing some cleaning up. It always feels good to work outdoors.
Yesterday, I did do some art work on the computer, making some modifications to my continuing work. There was some business involved too in planning what prints to send off to an international print biennial in India and doing the paperwork for that. This morning I had to stop by the studio to pick up the mailing tube that I’d been using to carry work back and forth, and which I judged to be the most suitable one.
Since I was out with the car, I stopped at the garden centre for some spring bulbs for my garden, to plant sometime soon, I hope. I had to go a bit farther to get some birthday gifts, which I thought I could do quite quickly. But I was stalled at a train crossing by the longest and slowest freight train ever, and never before at this location – fifteen minutes of sitting there unable to go anywhere!
Birthday gifts found and bought, I passed a favourite shop that imports fair trade crafts and clothing from SouthEast Asian countries. I must confess that I’m not fond of shopping, especially when I MUST find something for a special occasion. So, I was thrilled to find a lovely two piece dress in a rusty red (colour above isn’t quite true) that feels like raw silk but is rayon and linen, a bit expensive, but very artistic and unusual, and dressy enough for the opera or Christmas parties. I’ve lost weight and have been frustrated in lacking time to sew or shop for new clothes, so this was a great bonus finding something when not looking, for a non-shopper like me.
Back home, I wrapped the prints carefully in acid free paper, put them in the tube, sealed it and labelled it. Now I must take them to the post office! (I dread finding out the cost of mailing!) I’ll let you know more about this biennial if my work is accepted.
by Marja-Leena invitation
Here’s the exhibition invitation I designed with some great help by daughter Erika and her skills with type design. It has gone to the printers a few days ago, so here’s hoping it turns out well!
The details:
Silent Messengers: mixed media prints
Opening: November 16th, 4:30 – 8:00p.m.
Studio Art Gallery, Capilano College
2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver
The exhibition is on from November 16th to December 7th, 2005
Gallery hours: 10am – 4pm Monday – Friday
(or by appointment – email me)
I’ll post this again closer to the opening date along with a map. Mark your calendars. Everyone welcome!
by Marja-Leena prints vs reproductions, again
This really got my attention: Anna Conti’s post Giclée can of worms. Go read this excellent and thought-provoking article first, then come back.
Indeed! Giclée is a fancy name for high-end inkjet printing, and was very important in its early days for its archival quality, meaning that the inks are acid-free and UV resistant and the papers are also acid free. Archival inks and papers are readily available now, even in some of the newer consumer inkjet printers. (If you are printing valuable family photos that you want to last, look into this!)
How many times over the years have my printmaking colleagues and I had this discussion about prints versus reproductions? We get upset when some famous artists along with their galleries purposefully arrange reproductions, call them prints, sign them, sell them for huge sums of money. If this is done, at the very least the buyer MUST be made aware that the work is a reproduction! I agree very much with Anna that as artists we should not encourage reproductions and that we should educate the public about it.
Regarding “limited” editions, when prints were first made several centuries ago, they were not numbered and limited, and were inexpensive and available to everyone . Many restrikes have been made of Rembrandt’s etchings for example. As Anna stated, it later became a market thing to “limit” the numbers printed and thus raise prices. However, limited edition prints are still more affordable than paintings. Traditionally the plates are destroyed to prevent further prints, but not always. I often save some of mine and reuse them in different combinations in new work. I keep a documentation sheet of each art work which is available to galleries and buyers if they wish. Ultimately there’s trust involved in the integrity of the artist.
And how many times are artists who work with computers thought to be lesser artists? Nowadays artists have a tremendous variety of ways of working, whether paint or computer generated or film or found materials or unmade beds. What is of the essence is the intent, honesty and expression of the artist creating the originals in whatever material they choose. Let’s not discount use of the computer as one of many tools in artmaking in this 21st century. Many successful traditional printmakers have gone on to explore this new medium, incorporating it into their working methods.
Like many other printmakers, I’ve found that experimentation with new printmaking processes keeps my work fresh and new. I started using the computer in my work about seven years ago to replace the toxic darkroom process when preparing my positives for photo-etchings. Later I began manipulating my photos, doing ‘digital collages’ that could be made into etchings.
With the advent of a wide-format archival inkjet printer in the studio about three years ago, I’ve been doing straight digital prints often combining them with traditional printmaking because I like the handmade textural feel. Creating art at the computer is not easier than doing everything by hand, as least for those of us who are not trained commercial artists. The digital files can last a long time, depending on the life of the material they are stored on, but again artistic integrity comes into play here that these are not printed again. Some of those files might provide material for new works in a new way, just like those etched plates that I saved. I have never used the process to reproduce any of my work.
(If you are interested in reading more about printmaking and digital printmaking, check out some past articles under those themes on the right.)
This got a bit long-winded, I’m busy, busy these days working in the printmaking studio (digital and traditional printing!) and at home with PhotoShop at the computer. I’m also preparing for house guests tomorrow, thinking about shows I must see… not enough time. But I’m happy that some of the items on my to do list are getting done little by little.
by Marja-Leena thinker quiz
What kind of thinker are you? Find out through a Quiz from BBC. I did and here’s my result.
You are a Spatial Thinker
Spatial Thinkers:
• Tend to think in pictures, and can develop good mental models of the physical world.
• Think well in three dimensions
• Have a flair for working with objects
Other Spatial Thinkers include Pablo Picasso, Michelangelo, Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Careers which suit Spatial Thinkers include Mechanic, Photographer, Artist, Architect, Engineer, Builder, Set designer
My first test result also included Intrapersonal Thinker, but the second test only Spatial. Interesting. Not surprising because I know I think in images rather than words, as I’ve mentioned on this blog sometimes.
But who’s Isambard Kingdom Brunel??
(via Self-winding)
Addendum: Thanks to a sharp reader, born in the UK, who sent me the answer to who is Brunel? Shame on me for being too lazy to search for it myself.
by Marja-Leena things to do
As readers may know, I am madly busy getting ready for a solo exhibition opening November 16th. I’ll post details about that as soon as the invitation is done, but in the meantime have a look at my job list as the countdown approaches!
A. NEW WORK for exhibition to add to finished works:
– 2 more “Silent Messengers: Hoodoos IV and V” – in progress
– 5 smaller “Silent Messengers” (still untitled) – in progress
B. SHOW BUSINESS:
– 1. Provide poster image for graphic designer – Done. Being printed.
– 2. Invitation design – in progress. Erika to help with the text. Send to printer Tuesday.
– 3. Application to a gallery – in progress, awaiting invitation to be included.
– 4. Update mailing list for invitations – some snail mail, some email.
– 5. Press releases?
– 6. Make Label list, including prices, to give to Gerry to be made up.
– 7. Prepare exhibition binder with artist’s statement, CV and related info.
– 8. Buy magnets from Lee Valley for hanging work.
C. TAKE CARE of myself:
Do not lie awake at night thinking of more ideas for my art work! Do not get stressed. Breathe. Think calming thoughts. Go for a walk after sitting at the computer for hours with PhotoShop. Look out the window often to stretch eyes. Do not get a cold (am sniffling a bit and have stuffy ears on and off!) – take homeopathic preventative.