First I would like to thank those of you who have contributed to my GoFundMe campaign. I’ve already begun making lists, and buying paper, supplies and equipment for this adventure, and the lists keep growing!
I know folks have reservations about contributing money online, and maybe some folks just dislike GoFundMe and their ilk, and I understand. I would like you to know that if you want to help me in this endeavor, I can also accept money through the following methods, which don’t take a fee out of the donations.
My Venmo user name is @Gerard-Mooney-3 . They don’t take a fee;
I could also send a PayPal invoice, from which they take no fee. Just email me;
Or you could go totes old-school and put a check in the mail, like several folks already have! Gerry Mooney, 416 S. Perdue Ave., Claremore, OK 74017.
So with that out of the way, here’s what’s going on: The Dickens Project has begun enrollments in my lino printing class. It’s starting slow, since this is the end of the school year and there are lots of other things going on, I’m sure, but I got a nice email from the Dickens Project website editor and they’re doing an article on me and my work to promote the class. They sent me a draft yesterday and I offered a couple of small edits but in all respects it was a well-written piece.
As the class won’t be an “art class” per se, it’s not about drawing skills, but about learning how linoleum cutting is more about removing white rather than drawing in black. I’ll be encouraging students to bring a simple, Victorian-themed image, from a hair style, a shoe, an old doorway, all the way to something steampunk if that’s your thing! Ideally, an old advertising woodcut would be a perfect starting point, since wood cutting and linoleum cutting are nearly identical art media, so many of the “art problems” are already solved.
There are a number of lino-printing kits available from Speedball, a dependable art supply manufacturer, and I’ve been corresponding with the Dickens Universe manager to determine the best solution.
It’s a balancing act, determining just how much a beginner might need without being overwhelmed. The kits range from “5 pieces” to “15 pieces”, with corresponding prices. I want students to come in having exactly what they need, without overspending on unnecessary bells and whistles.
Aside from the class, I will also have a table in the vendor’s area, where I’ll be selling t-shirts and original prints of several of the more popular images from BLEAK HOUSE. The prints will be mostly in black ink on white or tinted paper, but just yesterday I began experimenting with touches of watercolor to brighten the images and it looks promising!
Of course the real strength of any block-printing medium is the ability to make multiple prints, or an “edition” in the parlance of the medium. Few other forms give the ability to make copies, whether for notecards, art prints, rubber stamps, what-have-you. This is in fact the whole reason block-printing media exist.
The event is now about two months away and I think I’ll be busy! My plan is to have about a hundred prints to sell, of various images, and the t-shirt designs are still being finalized.
Thanks for sticking around! Drop me a line at dickens@mooneyart.com and let me know what you think of all this!
