May 24, 2009 8
Palm Prints
I’ve been in Saipan now for about 2 and a half weeks. I’ve been feeling very stuck about what to do lately, artistically speaking. I have been focusing my attention to look out for inspiration for something to draw. Patterns. doodles. little creatures or plants. something. anything. I was gathering some visuals and inspiration from my environment and experiences, but it felt so deliberate and forced, that I never could bring myself to sit down to actually draw something. At some point I was sitting on the patio, staring at some palm trees, thinking about nothing in particular, and I thought to myself, “why don’t you just do prints?”
Ding, ding, ding!
The words were in my head before I envisioned what kind of prints I should do, but the ideas followed right away. In my earlier explorations of the yard, I had found a fallen palm frond from a betel nut palm. The bottom of the stem is quite wide, and the texture was supple enough that I had plans to cut out shapes and do a version of my sewn leaves (I still just might do that!). That original idea easily translated into using those shapes to create prints. I found some of the material, but it was dryer than before, so I was doubtful that I could make it work. I searched around the yard to look for another frond or other material, and I found some interesting fibrous matter from the coconut palms. It was also pretty dry, so then I got a clue from basket making–maybe I could soak the materials and bring back some of the flexibility, plus that might help the watercolor paint get soaked up better.
With nothing to lose if the material I collected disintegrated or worse, I plunged the stuff into a big bowl I’d filled with water. I let it soak while I gathered the rest of my materials to work outside under the carport. I set up my workspace on the little wooden table and was soon ready to try out a print.
For my first attempt I worked with some of the coconut palm fiber. Some of the material that was older, did indeed disintegrate, but for the fresher fiber, the water worked wonders. Not only did it make it more flexible, it also helped to clean off some of the dust and debris. I cut the material in the way it wanted to be cut, and what I ended up with looked a bit like a shrimp. I laid the fiber on some watercolor paper and applied red watercolor paint. The fiber soaked up the paint and held it pretty well.
I carefully moved the paint heavy fiber to a fresh sheet of watercolor paper and I made my first print.
Obviously I had painted the background in a blue wash before applying the print. It dulled the red down, plus those two longer strands of red on the right looked weird and very un-shrimplike. I think it looks more like a prehistoric bird fish.
I had to adjust the shape of the fiber and the amount of paint a bit, but eventually I ended up with one print that I am very pleased with that actually looks somewhat like a shrimp!
As I was making the prints I realized is that by placing the fiber on a piece of paper to apply the paint, I create another painting that is similar in shape but has quite a different texture.
The water had finally brought the dry brittle betel nut fiber to life. I tried my scissors on a small section from the larger piece, and I could cut it easily and precisely. For my next two prints, I cut leaf/petal shapes from the thicker betel nut material.
For the first of these prints, I applied purple paint to the fatter shape and made one print. It was alright, but it didn’t pick up any of the texture. For the next try, I used a little less paint and printed on the same sheet of paper. I continued making prints of the leaf/petal shape on the same piece of paper in shades of purple.
The next print used the skinny pieces that I’d cut from the betel nut palm fiber. I used all five pieces and printed them several times in various shades of green. I wasn’t as happy with the outcome, but I have an idea to cut up the print and incorporate those pieces into a collage combined with some drawn textures.
When I was creating the green print, I rested the cut pieces on a piece of watercolor paper, as I did when working on the shrimp print. The result was quite different from the print.
I think the shapes look like little pods, so I’m going to fill each space with some kind of drawing since right now it looks too empty to me.
Overall, it was a fun and satisfying project. Since I used my fingers to handle the paint-covered cut outs, my fingertips were covered with paint by the end of the process. I don’t love that, so before I try any more prints with this technique I’m going to see if I can find some surgical gloves to protect my skin from the potentially yucky stuff that’s in the paint.
