Limarik Loves......

Memento Mori

2011-10-25T11:18:00.000-07:00

A new show I will be in opens this Friday October 28 from 6-10pm at Zip Gallery in the Highlands. I decided given the theme I would reconfigure some of my pieces from my thesis show to fit the spirit of the season and the original inspiration for the show which was All Saints and Souls Days.
Zip Gallery is located at 3644 Navajo St Denver in the Navajo Arts District. If you can't make the opening this show will be open during Denver Arts Week as well as November's First Friday.

Postcard Art

2011-07-28T09:03:00.001-07:00

I made one of the Repeated Patterns images into a postcard for a postcard show in Montana. It might not get there in time to be included in the show but maybe the postal workers will enjoy it in transit.

Studio Snapshots

2011-07-28T09:01:00.001-07:00

This is a new drypoint on Lexan that I proofed yesterday. The plate is only half finished so far.

Self Portrait in Books

2011-07-09T13:12:00.001-07:00

More Repeated Patterns

2011-06-06T20:57:00.001-07:00

More images from the Repeated Patterns series. These were made with images taken of the sunset from Evergreen, Colorado.

Repeated Patterns

2011-06-06T14:26:00.001-07:00

This is a new series of archival inkjet prints I am working on titled Repeated Patterns. I noticed I was making the same decisions over and over again in my life and the ability to see my part in the whole play eluded me until I was able to get some distance and some accompanying perspective. When I was able to see how the different elements at play fit together it inspired me to make these images.

The original image used to make this pattern was a picture of tree branches reflected in water.

The original image used to make this pattern was a picture of the sunset I took from my front porch.

The original image for this pattern was also a picture of the sunset from my front porch.

Evergreen

2011-05-25T07:48:00.000-07:00

The sunset from Evergreen on May 20, 2011.

Stroll Pictures

2011-05-08T20:06:00.001-07:00

Name Change

2011-04-26T21:58:00.000-07:00

Due to a change in my personal life I have decided to change my name. All of my work will now be signed and sold under the name Lisa M Kerns and my new website address will be
www.lisamkerns-fineart.com. I am currently working with my website provider to have everything changed over and my old address should forward to my new one once all of the details are taken care of. Thanks.

New Work Vintage 2009

2011-04-26T21:41:00.000-07:00

I made most of these back in 2009 for the members show at Red Delicious Press. I really didn't know where the imagery was coming from but I recently started looking up symbols that have been coming up in my work on a website called Dream Moods. The images that seemed random at the time actually were very pertinent to what I was going through in my personal life and were indicative of what was going through my own mind even though I didn't consciously identify with it at the time. I found this quote by Carl Jung that pretty much sums it up:

"As against Freud's view that the dream is essentially a wish-fulfillment, I hold that the dream is a spontaneous self-portrayal, in symbolic form, of the actual situation in the unconscious."

watercolor, collagraph, and acrylic

watercolor monotype, collagraph, collage and oil pencil

collage, oil pencil, watercolor and collagraph (those are real peacock feathers printed into the paper)

Studio Update

2011-04-26T21:36:00.000-07:00

Nothing like moving stuff around to get a fresh perspective. The studio is looking much better than it has in a long long time.

Drypoint on Lexan

2011-04-26T21:18:00.000-07:00

I recently made an edition of drypoint on Lexan prints. I'm a little new to the process so there is definitely room for improvement but they look ok for a first try at printing an edition with this process. They are made just like a regular drypoint, but instead of copper I use Lexan, a shatterproof version of plexiglass that takes extreme amounts of pressure with grace. The process of printing these plates is just like a drypoint as well.

I spread ink over the image area with a piece of matteboard to apply ink to the plate and push the ink into the lines engraved into the plate surface

Once the ink is spread into the lines I use a piece of tarlatan, which is starched cheesecloth, to push the ink further into the lines by rubbing the ink in a circular motion until most of the ink has been removed from the surface of the plate. After buffing the plate with a piece of newsprint to remove any leftover plate tone the plate is ready to print.

This is the final print of the feathers that were printed over a previous plate of diamonds.

New Work Finally

2011-04-20T18:31:00.000-07:00

New work! I'm making montypes with paper stencils. the process works like this:

Roll up the plate with ink. Place the cut paper stencils on top of the ink and place the print paper on top of that. Run the plate and paper through an etching press set at the right pressure. The first print will look like the one below.

I am working with a concept of ghosts and psychic residue for this body of work so I have chosen to continue printing the plate to get a "ghost" image. To make one I remove the stencils and print the plate as it is on good paper for a second time. Below are images of an original print and its subsequent "ghost" image:

And one of my favorite parts, the pile of used stencils I am left with at the end of the day.

It's a FUUUUULLL moon in Denver

2010-01-29T20:30:00.001-08:00

Studio Update

2009-12-11T08:05:00.000-08:00

I opened the studio up for First Friday in December, it was really good to reorganize it from a strictly working space to a quasi-exhibition space if just for the night and I'm planning on having an open studio every three months so watch out for March. Currently I am working on a series of mixed media prints that will eventually inform the large silk print and embroidery pieces I have hanging on my wall. They are inspired by Victorian era Spiritualism' s idea of the Summerland, a paradise in the afterlife created by the thoughts of the souls that live there. Apparently striving for betterment of the soul is really important there so all the ladies in my prints are busy reading, dancing, and mending up animals. Eventually I hope to use these as inspiration for an installation depicting an army of specterly women assembling a dead zoo (Victorian speak for a natural history museum's taxidermy collection). It's in the infancy stages current;y but we'll see where it goes...

New Watercolor Monotypes

2009-05-26T14:35:00.000-07:00

I have been working on some watercolor monotypes for the class I am teaching at Red Delicious Press. The monotype class I will teach starts on June 18 and meets every Thursday from 6 - 9 pm for five weeks. If you have questions or would like to enroll please email me at reddeliciouspress@gmail.com. I really like watercolor but I get annoyed with the paint drying at different intervals and I'm not really a fan of watercolor paper (I love Rives BFK) so I decided to paint my watercolor onto frosted mylar and then transfer them to Rives by running the dry painting with moist paper through my etching press. When the paint and paper are dry I begin drawing in certain areas with oil pencil.

New Work

2009-05-26T14:20:00.000-07:00

I thought I would add some new images I have been working on. This set I have been playing around with for quite a while. I was photographing water reflections while I was living in Arizona thinking I would insert them into the background of the obituary portraits I was working on for my thesis show. They languished in my hard drive but I really like the way they look now, somewhat abstract but recognizable and representative of the fact that I have always been attracted to patterning in the natural world.

Dream Pillows

2009-03-09T12:55:00.001-07:00

These are a few of my dream pillows I make on their way to Gallery Mio in Denver for the March show. These owls are filled with organic herbs that help you sleep and encourage creative artistic dreams. I will be adding them to my shop soon enough.

Monday Funday

2009-03-09T12:22:00.000-07:00

It is a glorious day here in Colorado though a bit nippy. I had a wonderful Saturday at Red Delicious Press as I was accepting work from the students of UC Boulder's print club for their show there. I must say I really admire how engaged and interested all of them were towards the architecture of our space and also the mission of the press, which is to maintain a place for artists working in traditional print media to have a place to practice and develop their techniques beyond their school printshop. There is a lot of work with diverse methods and it should be a very exciting show for us Red Delicious members to spend a couple months with. The opening is this Friday March 13 from 6-9 pm and I am almost always at the shop from 10 - 2 pm on Saturdays working so feel free to pop by and see it. Incidentally, after the opening the Easy Star All stars are playing at Cervantes in Denver so I know where I will be later that night.

My Hood

2009-02-24T15:06:00.001-08:00

I have always been a practitioner of walking meditation. I put on those headphones and I'm gone! When I first got to Arizona for grad school I started wandering around my neighborhood with my camera and I would take pictures of random things to try to find beauty in my unfamiliar surroundings. Now that I've moved again to a really cool neighborhood that has something interesting around every corner, I've decided to continue this practice and post some of the images here

caling all Denver printers in need of an art making home!

2009-02-20T10:34:00.000-08:00

I am a member of a co-op press in Aurora, CO called Red Delicious Press. As a member I get to work in a building designed by Victor Hornbein who worked in the Usonian style (think typical Frank Lloyd Wright- clerestory windows, passive solar, gorgeous wooden beams, large overhangs for protected outdoor spaces, etc) so not only do I get to work in a cool space I also get to work on three etching presses, one of which is massive and I can do my silkscreening (once our washout booth is complete). Big things are happening over there and I am super excited. If you are in the Denver area and are wondering where this heavenly place exists it is about a thirty minute drive from the Highlands straight East on Colfax till you get to downtown Aurora; the press is one block north on 16th Ave. We have exhibitions every month and our receptions take place on second Friday from 6 - 9 pm. Currently membership runs at $50 per month which gives you 24 hour access and use of all the machinery. We are looking for fine art printmakers that are interested in making their own work while also fostering a community of artists. For more information and to join email Elaine Scheffler at Elaine@reddeliciouspress.com.

My show at Gallery Mio in Denver

2009-02-20T10:31:00.000-08:00

Join me tonight for a viewing of my prints and an artist reception at Gallery Mio!

6 - 9 pm

821 8th Ave in Denver just off the corner of 8th Ave and Santa Fe

More New Prints

2008-12-17T20:32:00.001-08:00

Christmas Card Factory

2008-12-15T19:39:00.001-08:00

Christmas Cards

2008-12-15T19:29:00.001-08:00

So, I 've toyed with the idea of making my own Christmas cards since I was an undergrad in art school many years ago. Finally, I did it and I must say it was much more fun than I thought it could be. I had wanted to silkscreen them but I haven't set up my equipment properly yet so I decided to run craft paper colored card stock through my laser printer and cut them to size by hand. I used a drawing I made of a fox head and drew a wreath to surround him with and used the Pinewood font to write "Happy Holidays" on the front and "Here's to being foxxy at Christmas and throughout the New Year" inside. It was snowing on Sunday morning when I was hand painting the white sections of the image and it was just the perfect way to spend some time making things to send to others to let them know I was thinking of them at this time of the year. Isn't that what the holidays are really about.

New prints for Sale In January

2008-12-13T17:11:00.000-08:00

cupcake pincushions

2008-12-13T08:49:00.000-08:00

Thursday I took a class at the Denver Public Library on how to make cupcake pincushions. It was a wonderful experience and totally free thanks to the Fresh City Life sponsors. Fresh City life is a program of classes and presentations that are a real bonus to the library.