I graduated with my MFA! It’s good to be finished. Now I get to spend the next six months to a year to adjust and manage an art life outside of school. Whoohoo?

The art page is updated with the Thesis work. It’s going to be awhile before new work will be seen. I have no studio or printshop access. Have a good summer everybody!

I’m definitely not using this image, but I do get entertained by how it looks like  a wrestler and an insect combine.

That’s it. I’ve been taking in the review comments and figuring out my next steps. I have to catch up in paper writing though, which is not so fun. One more semester left, one more semester left…

I’ll post in the next day or so (probably Wednesday) on the book project so far. I don’t know how much I’ll work on the book for the rest of graduate school, but this is the new work that is likely to evolve for the following year.

The top piece was the last piece finished, the ones below were the experiments/studies that built up to it:

I’m going to try and draw/print bigger over the summer and fall. The figures/portraits will probably go in the direction of the last etching that I posted, where the figure is more hidden under a surreal hat of sorts. Nothing is definite however, so I guess I’ll just keep track of the progression as it follows during the summer months.

-Megan

I got around to this a day later. I didn’t buy paper in time to print. Whoops.

I printed for most of my afternoon. This is was how I spent all of week 9 on, carving and prepping my print. I made a proof print for my mentor meeting on Saturday.

The ink was all old and gummy, which left odd spots. Seeing it printed out, I also saw that the pinkie needed to be carved out more. It just kind of blends with the sweater and hair. After fixing those on Sat.-Sun. I came in today and printed.

I was quite rusty with printing. My first few prints kept coming up grayish and splotchy. I had to experiment with the printing press’s pressure and the amount of ink applied. I printed more than I would have liked, but I got 2-3 good prints to use. It’s hard to notice with these tiny photos, but all the tiny cuts look amazingly detailed in person.

Another thing I was doing this week was attempting a photo transfer. The school’s artstore was out of the blender markers all last week, so I used some of the print studio’s acetone. It came up with hit-or-miss results. When the blender markers finally came in to the school store, I tested them today and got less pleasing results. Both methods give me headaches, so I’m off to test the wintergreen oil tonight. I don’t know if it’s my impatience, the application methods, or the paper, but it’s just not working out like I would expect. Here’s the best transfer that I drew on top of.

The hand didn’t come up at all and I should have left it, but I tried to fix it with ink. I made it worse and since taking this photo, I haven’t managed to improve it. If I can master the transfer method, I’ll redo this photo because I think it’s got some potential for it.

For week 10 I need to:

*look into new shoes

*play with a puppy

*master this transfer technique

*submit to some art shows

*take photos of people as references for future portraits.

*buy a coat (it snowed yesterday!)

*research research research

-Megan

“Such fairy tales begin with an original lack of differentiation between two siblings: they live together and feel alike; in short, they are inseparable. But then, at a certain moment in growing up, one of them begins an animal existence, and the other does not.” –Bettelheim

Combination of silkscreen/drawing monoprints (or mixed media depending how you want to define it). Completed the final semester.

Graduate school 2nd year:

Artwork completed during my second year of graduate school.

Graduate school 1st year:

Artwork completed during my first year at graduate school. Media range from relief print, etching, silkscreen, and mixed media drawing/prints.

All work © Megan Frauenhoffer