Steam Roller Prints

Cicale DesignsFine ArtArtist’s BooksSteam Roller Prints

In 2013, BookWorks hosted Printocracy, a weekend to celebrate printmaking, with an exhibit of work from all over the US and a day of printing large relief plates using a leased steamroller as a press. Twelve artists participated, using almost two gallons of ink and a huge roll of Rives BFK paper. Most of the plates were 3x3' square, carved in battleship linoleum or MDF. A few were larger, including one printed from a 4x8' sheet of masonite.

Alas, framing these prints is expensive and they dominate any space they are in, so I chopped mine up, painted and collaged all over the back side, and bound it into the book you see here. The text includes the dictionary listing of the word 'value' along with many quotations that relate to this concept, both in the design sense and in the values we have as we live our lives.

The 32 page book is bound in red leather, with end sheets of Lokta paper.

 

Artists Books Steamroller Prints Balance
The printed side of the book, with squares cut out and reversed. These show on the adjoining pages.
Artists Books Steamroller Prints Balance
The reverse side has a variety of lettering styles and media, from brush Romans to a very loose cap written with watercolor.
Artists Books Steam Roller Prints Balance
Masses of text balance with the strong contrasts of the print.
Artists Books Steam Roller Prints Value Reverse
On the back side of the print, I used many kinds of ink washes, graphite pencil, watercolor and gouache, as well as a bit of gold leaf and a collage of a wasp's nest.
Artists Books Steam Roller Prints Water
A second steamroller print in 2015 led to the creation of two more books. The first, Water: Spirit and Politics, began with the print based on Hokusai's wave print and a haiku, Over and over / Again on the sea the moon / So easily mends. Letter includes Neuland text that states facts about water and climate.
Artists Books Steam Roller Prints Water and Moon
On the reverse side I have painted shades of lavender grey and blue, inspired by the shapes of the print, with pale grey additional selections of text. The texts and images drive home the theme of the necessity of water.
Artists Books Steam Roller Prints Life
A second book made from the steamroller print, titled Water Is Life, has Japanese brush Kanji, using sink art, a technique for creating the washes of sumi ink. On each page a tiny bit of lettering in English tells the translation, and a square of gold emphasizes the preciousness of water. The texts are a variety of quotations about the importance of water to our lives, and to our spirits.
Artists Books Steam Roller Prints Life
We had an interesting day printing these, as the steamroller broke and we ended up using a pickup truck running over a plywood sheet, back and forth, instead. Thus the inking was uneven, resulting in shades of grey rather than just black and white. This made printed images much more subtle, which in this book, turned out to be a plus.