Day: November 21, 2013

See a Steamroller Printing at Artfête

Steamroller printing

Artfête Open House & Holiday Party
Friday, November 22, 6:00–9:00 pm
Full schedule of events

If you didn’t catch the steamroller printing action last year, you’re in luck: this Friday, you have another chance. The steamroller is returning for the Artfête Open House & Holiday Party!

[button-blue url=”https://www.theartleague.org/blog/2013/11/19/artfete-weekend-guide/” target=”_self” position=”left”]More on Artfête →[/button-blue]

For the kickoff Artfête event, artist Steve Prince and a group of community volunteer artists created two sets of woodcuts. Friday evening at Artfête, you can see the blocks inked and printed by steamroller. You have two chances, at 6:00 and 8:00 pm. The printings will take place on Madison Street in front of the Annex.

About the print: This year’s community print is a special celebration of The Art League’s 60th anniversary, coming up in 2014. And if you make a donation at the Easel Level or above during Artfête, you’ll get a piece of this original art!

Plus, if you bring your Annual Fund donation to the Artfête Holiday Party on Friday, you can double your gift’s impact! Thanks to a generous commitment from MRE Properties Inc.’s Montgomery Center (home to our Madison Street Annex) and Burke and Herbert Bank, donations to the Annual Fund made at Artfête will be matched again this year! (You can bring a check, credit card, cash, or make a pledge.)

Volunteer artists working on the community print.
inking
Steve Prince inking a woodcut.
artfete-print
An edition printed by more conventional means.
Events

Sculpture Class Finale

You can read the rest of this series here.

Last week was the end of Fall classes here at The Art League School, which also meant it was time for my latest artistic venture to come to a close. All I had left to do was sand and polish my sculpture.

I spent some of the weekend sanding at home, then finished removing the last nicks and scratches in class. The shape of the sculpture didn’t change any, but sanding really brought out the beauty of the stone, which was a huge improvement.

But what really sealed the deal was the wax, which lets more of the color and translucency come through:

The finished sculpture. (click for full size)
The finished sculpture. (click for full size)

There are things I would change if I were to redo the project, but I’m definitely proud of it. And I accomplished what I set out to prove, which is that a beginner can take a class here with no experience and be successful. It only took eight classes, too; you can see the weekly progress in the video at the top of this post.

I still need to do a little house cleaning before this sculpture gets its place of honor. Nick, the instructor, also suggested that I attach a base, depending on where the sculpture goes, to protect the sharp bottom edge. It also needs a title — leave a comment if you have any suggestions!

So there it is! You’ll be able to see it for yourself at the Student/Faculty Show in February, along with lots of other work from all the classes here. If you missed last week’s post with photos of the other sculptures my classmates were making, be sure to check it out.

Until next time,
George

George's Artistic Adventure