Art Makeover

May 27

Recently one of my older prints (2012) had some kind of accident - most likely knocked off the wall - and the frame was ruined beyond cosmetic repair. So I took it home. But as I contemplated ordering a new frame, I thought to myself: I could improve this print. So I cut the paper off the back and removed the hardware, and pulled the print out.

The concept of the print was based on something I saw while flipping through the New York Times Sunday Magazine. A hand over someone’s back looked as if the hand was making a hand shaped hole in the back. I turned back to the image and that was not what the picture was at all. But I was struck with the idea that someone’s shadow could alter the shape of another or even sear a hole in them. So I made a whole series of prints that I called Shadow Touch.

This print was a combination of: the mono-print shape of an abstracted back with a hand shaped hole; two etchings of a crow flying, one larger on a house shaped plate, the other quite small; and a linoleum block print of a finch in some evergreen branches. The colors were turquoise, navy, yellow ocher, and ultramarine blue.

At the time, I embraced imperfections and accepted things the way they turned out as part of the process. But twelve years later, the imperfections stand out to me. The small bird image was not printed as cleanly as it could have been, And some of the background ink faded out as it approached the edges of the plate. It was time for a makeover.

First, I got the watercolors and added some more background color, adding in textured dots as well as filling in the corners. Second, that blurry bird needed help. I tried sharpening it up with a micron pen but it didn’t help. I had this idea of a string of prayer flags going across the print, so I dug out some of my 2” x 2” prints and picked three with birds. I trimmed them down, and sewed them into place over the unfortunate crow.

Third, I searched through my scrap drawer and found a piece of print with the same hand shadow in similar colors. I stitched that piece near the bottom of the print, but halfway around, the sewing machine started chewing up the paper, and I had to stop. I was able to save the print with some minor patching. I also had to take apart and clean the machine, but apparently not well enough, because the sewing rhythm was a bit off. I will have to embrace imperfections after all.

Fourth, I hand stitched a meandering line across the top and down the left side.

All in all I think it’s an improvement and it looks pretty good.

Lastly. I photographed the final result, but when I went to pull up the original image on my computer, I could find none. So I made a little sketch to accompany this post.

Now I just need to order that new frame.