Relief Printing on an Etching Press

I’ve updated an earlier post dealing with the challenge of printing relief on an etching press. Printmaker Maria Arango Diener suggested using discarded rubber blankets from the commercial lithography industry to use on your etching press for cushioning between the steel rollers and the woodcut or wood engraving block instead of cardboard. The post is [...]

Dad rides the paddy wagon

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Art and the Police

The police culture of today is a militaristic entity which serves the interests of the governing power and not those who gave government the power first. Yes, they cultivate the appearance of outreach and caring when the optics require it. Ultimately the true culture of policing prevails and is something we should no longer tolerate, especially when it comes to the arena of public protest as illustrated in Toronto during the summer of 2010.

A Wonderful Legacy & Exhibit

How lucky my brother and I are to have a dad – Ilgvars Steins – who still makes amazing art well into his eighties. Shown above is a recent watercolour/pen & ink titled Soup du Jour. Since moving in with Paula and I he has been busy making new work, adding to a large body [...]

Riverside Artsfest ~ 2010

For the last ten years our Dawson City Arts Society has organized an arts festival in conjunction with the Discovery Days holiday in August. Discovery Days is about remembering the discovery of gold on the creeks and the beginning of the Klondike Gold Rush in 1896. It’s a three day event that covers a lot [...]

Curating my dad’s show

A couple of years ago I moved my dad into the self contained suite on the first floor of our house, including his Scandinavian furniture and decades worth of his artwork. I have an opportunity to curate an exhibition of his work at one of our galleries here called the Confluence Gallery. Initially, the concept [...]

Shiva Inks

I found this nice box of Shiva block printing inks while organizing my studio. Unfortunately Shiva no longer exists as an ink manufacturer. They operated out of Chicago and eventually moved to their final home in Torrance, California. I believe they ceased operation four or five years ago. Shiva’s palette was based on the Ostwald [...]

Soviet Era Video Store Clerk

Here’s a photo taken with a Sigma DP2 and the amazing Foveon image capture chip. I try to do everything manually on this camera since it’s pretty bare bones anyway being the poor man’s answer to the Leica X1 rangefinder digital, but I’ll bet the DP2 takes better pictures. This is my friend and local [...]

Reduction Linocuts

Need inspiration or guidance on reduction printmaking? I know I do. Here’s a great overview on the methods used by Los Angeles printmaker Dave Lefner. I’ve been following his art for awhile. His work-ethic and approach to his craft is very motivating. Ahhh, so much to do, so little time… Here’s a great video by [...]

Wood Engraving Block Making

Here’s a couple of boxwood stumps along with a branch sitting on my messy band saw. The one in the foreground is about 8 inches across at the widest part. As you can see the wood is quite dry showing those splits in the wood. So the trick is to get as much yield as [...]

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