I have been taught about the value of presentation. A fabulous painting or lovely drawing will be better “seen” by others if it well presented. This may mean framing, or I may choose mounting for presentation. Mounting an artwork to a board or panel may be more appropriate. I don’t want my work behind glass, and framing is a lot of overhead for an artist. Professional framing is expensive, and do it yourself framing requires skill, time, and tools.

With some drawings and paintings I mount the original work directly on a board or a panel. If it is on paper, I will seal it with acrylic medium or wax. This is not archival, but I am not making great art for posterity. The surface will be delicate/fragile, but so what? Art will be hung up for viewing, not handled daily like a toy or a tool! It will be up to the owners to care for it as they see fit.

When I mount archival prints of my work, I may not resist the urge to enhance them. Even a very good print will not have the impact of the original work if the original has dimensional impasto or collage elements. So when I mount an archival print, I may do a bit more to improve the presentation. Here is one example:

You can see on the left the archival print, just positioned on the painted canvas board prior to mounting. At right is the mounted print with enhancements. Note that I took the photos in different lighting so the colors appear different. Really the overall colors are much the same.

What is different: I added a tiny hint of dimension to the print, using acrylic medium & translucent color. I added to the leaves and another spot where the original work has dimension. The main change was is on the mounting panel: I extended a hint of the branches out beyond the print. This felt necessary because I mounted the print on a larger panel, so the background distracted me from the actual print. I like it better with this additional level of presentation. It is not just a weaker copy of the original, but something a bit different and new.

I like using ghost prints. I often made a ghost print back in my printmaking days, unless I was printing an edition. And that was infrequent as I preferred the variety of unique prints.

A ghost print is the second or even third image pulled from the plate without re-inking. Sometimes, very occasionally, a ghost print will be spectacular; better than the first, intentional print. But more often the ghost print will be pale and a bit lackluster, but still with some value.

Ghost prints can be excellent backgrounds for additional work. An intricate ghost print provides a fine start for abstract doodling with colored pencil, pen, or even paint. I cleaned out some flat file drawers and found a few ghost prints to work on. The blue ghost print at left has colored pencil, a bit of marker pen, and an added circle applied. It may be something of an aerial view.

I transformed the orange ghost print on the right using watercolor paint. It now an abstracted landscape to my eyes, and I rather like it. These two pieces are fun examples of using ghost prints.

The Haller Fountain in downtown Port Townsend features a cast bronze figure pouring water from an urn. The woman stands on a ornate base with cherubs and dolphins also spouting water. The figure in this bronze fountain has been replaced three times. Time, water and vandals are hard on public art! The original fountain statue was of poor quality metal that did not last well.

The original for this figure, by an unknown artist, was based on the 1490s painting “The Birth of Venus” by Sandro Botticelli. The artist displayed the statue at the 1893 World Columbian Exposition, aka the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, Illinois. The Venus statue was shown in the German Pavilion. That statue was sold to J.L. Mott Foundry of New York, and casts could be ordered from their catalog with a choice of various bases.

Theodore Haller purchased the original figure from the Mott Foundry, and gifted the fountain to the City of Port Townsend in 1906 . Although the original statue was intended as a statue of Venus, our fountain figure is often referred to as Galatea. It seems that the donor’s father, Granville Haller, read a poem about the Greek sea nymph at the dedication of the gift to the City. Since then the figure has been known as Galatea. And the whole is also referred to as the Haller Fountain, after the donor. The first repair of the statue modified the original figure. However Port Townsend artists Mark Twain Stevenson and David Eisenhower created a replica of the first statue in 1992 after vandals destroyed the second statue.

In 2014 artist Sara Ybarra Lopez wrote and published a book, “Galatea: Heart of Port Townsend”. Sara included photos, art, and thoughts about the Haller Fountain by local residents. You can read more about the book in a Leader article by Jan Haliday. You may still be able to buy or view her book at the Jefferson Historical Society Museum of Art & History, at 540 Water Street.

I used part of a old photo that I took of the Haller Fountain to create the recent collage displayed on the right. I added “bubbles” cut from some of my own prints. Galatea sometimes takes a bubble bath when pranksters add soap to the fountain water! I took several photos of the fountain in order to contribute art to Sara’s book.

If you read my previous post “Making Old Work New” you will already have the drift. I am studio clearing, finishing, renewing, and discarding. Here I have added color to two older works: a pencil drawing and a photo etching.

I am quite charmed by beetles, but this insect seems to be more of a fantasy fly, enjoying a flower. Once only a delicate pencil drawing, now in watercolor and as digital foiled versions of each.

The print is a variation of my strider/running woman that may represent my own flight from the “big city” and from my 9-5 (well 9-5:30 with a 30 minute lunch…) job at Boeing Computer Services. . We left Seattle for Port Townsend in 1998 and were more or less self employed one way or another for another 10 years before settling into art for me, and real retirement with fruit trees, motorcycles, and old RVs to work on (M)J.

This small print is just black ink and the figure alone. So each print has seen very different additions over time. Here I added a landscape in watercolor with a bit of colored pencil used in the buildings.

So I continue with more old work renewed.

I have not so much new work to show from recent weeks. But I am working! Please note that I will have work on exhibit at the Art Farm Gallery on Saturday 10/12! Every art lover is welcome to this most excellent party event; just come with interest in fine art, stay to visit, to taste a few great snacks, and to enjoy some fine music!

I am slow doing anything these days, and have many things to keep me busy. It took me several days to prepare for this fine art event. In doing so, I started some significant “housekeeping” in my studio. The time has finally come to clean out some detritus, complete unfinished work or destroy it, and gift away anything I no longer use.

So I embellished & enhanced several older incomplete artworks, especially pieces from my printmaking days at Corvidae Press. Some have even been mounted and made ready to hang. Others may be combined to create finished works.

Sometimes bigger changes are needed! My work area was no longer serving me well, with changes in use and changes in my life. So I tackled this by relocating my primary work table, along with carts of tools & materials. Thank goodness for wheeled storage! Another part of the other work is cleaning out some older materials that I don’t seem to use; there is so much great stuff to pass on to others!

I am also trying to shrink my “office” storage that surrounds my computer! Perhaps I can discard bank & card statements that are 10 years old??? Well, my own ambition just amazes me!

Here are some of the newly finished/reworked prints, along with one new piece that I have not posted previously, called “Memories with Fork”:

So not so much new is relative: some things are renewed!