It’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything, but I wanted to share some new works in progress. Here are a couple of woodblocks I plan on printing this weekend. My life has been extremely busy over the past year, but I hope to begin a more steady blog presence again. I’ve also changed the look of the site and would appreciate any feedback. Let me know what you think.
It’s nice to be posting again.
Have a great day!
Drew
Copyright © 2013 by Drew Kail
Do you Think
Nice Hat
I finished a couple more drawings recently and am pretty pleased with the direction they are heading. The exercise itself of automatic drawing is such an wonderful thing, in that it allows my imagination to run wild at the end of a work day, or soon before I turn in for the night. I’ve been finding that after longer sessions of drawing before I go to bed I have much more vivid and unusual dreams, which I love. I’m still working out how a narrative can fit into the grand scheme of things, or if it should at all. We’ll see. That seems like something down the road.
I’ve been inspired by Nicole of NMNPHX “Photo Friday” post. Because of her I decided to share some of my photos and to take new ones. I took these a while ago as an exploration into color, layering and pattern in digital imagery and never showed them to anyone. My intent was to “paint” with the camera lens by taking photos of collaged paper scraps. I’ve been straying away from my traditional printmaking recently with my drawing project and working on a series of larger scale collages for an exhibition coming up in December, but I think it’s good to take a break. Embarking on projects involving different mediums keeps my creativity fresh and may lead to technical cross over down the road. Anyways, here is the first of three series of photographs I’ve taken.
Have a great day.
Copyright ©2012 by Drew Kail
A couple more new drawings I took photos of.
So… I think my comic and cartoon influence is on full display with these drawings. I’m really enjoying myself and should have another one completed and photographed soon.
Have a great day
Copyright©by Drew Kail 2012
When tearing down paper to make prints, scraps are produced. I’ve always kept these scraps with the intent that some day I would use them. As you may know from reading my blog I am very passionate about reusing materials rather than throwing them away. Recently I have begun to draw on the scraps. It’s a great exercise, because each piece is different, and often the scraps aren’t perfect squares. Nothing is planned when beginning each drawing. I just start making shapes with my pen and go from there. I’ve completed a couple and wanted to share them.
I only have two photographed so far, but will post more later.
I may turn these into screen prints. I’m thinking that eventually I’ll make some kind of book out of them, but don’t know exactly how or why just yet. We’ll see.
Have a great day
Copyright©2012 by Drew Kail
This is one of the woodcuts I worked on outside a couple of weeks ago. It is carved out of some scrap wood I found in my shed. There were actually two scraps of the same type of wood, a square and this one. This one is far from having right angles, which is why I was so interested in using it. Basically… It’s got a lean to it from the left to the right side and the top has a slight wave which I think is gorgeous. So far I have printed ten of this image. I’m not sure yet what the finished edition will be. It’s also still untitled at this point. The other piece of wood, the square piece, I have been using for some color mixed process prints, which I’ll post pictures of when I get further along.
Have A great day.
Copyright©2012 by Drew Kail
Just an update on some things I’ve been up to since I returned from Pittsburgh. 
I participated in the Crafty Underdog event held at the Bob White Theater on June 3rd. A Fantastic history to the theater including a gentleman named Dale Haskin who purchased it in the 1990’s to house his Wurlitzer organ pieces. The Bob White is in the process of being renovated to be a functional space again, and I was excited to be a part of this first weekend reopening. Thanks Crafty Underdog. There are two more days of events in the Bob White Theater this June 23rd and 24th. I will not be participating, because that is my 6th wedding anniversary weekend. But do check them out if you are in Portland. You can find out more info on their website:
I wanted to show my setup for the event, because it really is a simple thing that anyone can do when needing to display their work. I used a 3 panel cardboard display board, which I got at SCRAP, painted it with gesso to make it white and hung samples of my work with thumb tacks. The only real “construction” was screwing an empty cardboard box to the back of the board as a support so the display didn’t topple over. Not really exciting so I didn’t take a picture. Alyssa set up my table and I think it looked great. She’s good at that kind of stuff.
An old wine box that I acquired from a previous job held all of the inventory and propped up a few collages. I cut out and hand typed 100 business cards for this event. I love how much people enjoy sifting through the stacks to get just the right one. It’s free art. What’s better than that?
Alyssa purchased this brand new battery operated camping lantern that worked wonderfully during the event as a little beckon of light… A little light house directing people to my space.
The last thing I want to show is my banner. I cut the letters for Drew Kail out of black and white woodcuts. The drewkail.wordpress.com is cut out of reused black mat board. Everything was then glued to a piece of bristol board. Pretty easy and I’ve used it for a few shows now, so it’s held up extremely well.
Events like Crafty Underdog are great to get exposure for your work, and I wanted to show that you can make a really nice display for almost no money. I plan on building a wooden version of the cardboard display board with a hinge, but that’s another day.
Other than hanging out at craft shows I’ve been working on some new woodcuts. I was carving on our back deck last weekend when the weather was beautiful and Alyssa took some pictures.
I carved two separate blocks that day. This one is a piece of found MDF Board. Originally the image was carved into reused linoleum, however, the lino had some sort of ink resist on it which made printing a quality image out of the question. To remedy the situation, I printed the lino on the found MDF, which I will then print on the paper.
Here’s a better shot of the image.
I love working outside, because you can just sweep all of the wood shavings into the backyard. I began printing the second block I cut that day and should have pictures up soon.
Have a great day!
Copyright©2012 by Drew Kail
A Good Distance From Here to There
A couple of days ago I was interested in updating some images on my Inkteraction profile. For those who are unfamiliar, Inkteraction is a social network, similar to Facebook, for printmakers. Anyway, I was browsing through which prints I had already uploaded in my photo albums when I discovered one which was not on this blog. Interesting. Somehow I had forgotten to include it with the rest of the woodcuts completed in 2011, but had uploaded it to Inkteraction out of context.
Posting an image of this print today is actually extremely fitting on a personal note. The title “A Good Distance From Here to There”, describes my most recent experience perfectly. This morning my wife Alyssa and I woke up in my hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, clear across the country from where I we currently live in Portland, Oregon. It is always a very long trip with no direct flights between the two cities. Portland to Houston to Pittsburgh = A very long day.
Anyways, we are here for the wedding of my friends Justin and Megean. I’ve known Justin since the 9th grade, which sadly is over twenty years ago. They are getting married on Saturday and I couldn’t be happier to be involved. Justin are Meagan are perfect for each other.
There is also a Pierogi bar at the reception. A PIEROGI BAR…. AT THE RECEPTION! It’s great to be home. I love this town. But it sure is a good distance from here to there.
Forgive the mistakes in this post if there are any (There probably are)….I’m very jet lagged this morning.
Have a great day.
Copyright©2012 by Drew Kail
I just want to make a quick post/ heartfelt thank you to Mike Smith, the writer/curator of Destructive Testing. Today he granted me the honor of being his featured artist of the day, and showcased a lot of my work. He even inspired me to un-box some old linocuts of industrial scenes, which I had only printed proofs of, and do full editions. I’m excited to take them for a spin again and see what happens.
Other than showcasing a featured artist of the day on his blog Mike also makes amazing sculptural and functional work with reused, reclaimed and recycled materials. Often these pieces are ingeniously electrically engineered as lamps in a wonderful marriage of science and the fantastical.
Vintage Food Grater Wall Lamp
You can find more of Mikes work and more featured artists on his blog:
http://destructivetesting.wordpress.com/
Thanks again for including me as today’s Artist of The Day Mike.
Last night I attended a networking event hosted by I Heart Art Portland. I think it went very well. I met a lot of interesting people and made some connections in the art community. For the event I decided that new business cards were needed. I racked my brains for ideas, concepts and styles and nothing seemed to work , until….
I decided to cut up some of my proofs and slightly flawed prints into business cards. This way, not only does the person have my information, but also has a unique piece of my work as a reminder of what I do. I cut them close to double the height of a normal business card and slightly less in length.
For the backs, I bought mailing labels. At first the game plan was to design a template and print 50 labels by computer, however, the template took forever to download and I couldn’t figure out how to use it.
Enter in the typewriter.
I’ve had this typewriter for years and years. I don’t even remember how long, and it still works great, even if I had to tape the lid closed.
I hand typed 50 labels. Sounds tedious, but oddly… I actually really enjoyed it. The smell of the ink and the ticking on the hammers was fantastic. I’m an analogue kind of guy, and sometimes I forget that.
The greatest thing, for me, was that I was listing my email, twitter and blog address by typewriter. So conceptual.
Here’s the link to the I Heart Art Portland website:
Have a great day.
Copyright©2012 by Drew Kail
Drew Kail 