This is a fantastic painting and it’s in the Baltimore Museum of Art’s European collection and I really think very few people realize it’s there. It is a wonderful Botticelli and there is never anyone in the room – I usually have it all to myself and whoever I’ve dragged to the museum with me…
Where to find Alvira (1884-2198 Alvira Rd, Allenwood, PA 17810) or 41.136248, -76.959330Scroll down for a car or bike tour of the interesting features of the game lands and the ghost town. Alvira (near Allenwood, Union County) was condemned in 1942 so the War Department could build the Pennsylvania Ordnance Works (POW) and the Susquehanna…
I have been experimenting with printmaking in various ways. First, I am using my photographs as well as pen and ink drawings, and transforming them into wood block print style works using digital techniques.
Then using a combination of CNC laser cutting and hand carving, the wood blocks are created using 1/2″ Baltic birch plywood. For multiple color prints, I use the laser to cut 1/4″ diameter registration holes in the same spot for each color block. Then, using Ternes Burton pins and tabs and a special homegrown jig, register each color as they are printed.
My biggest challenges have been analog, not digital. Getting the right inks was a big challenge. Switching to Cranfield Caligo Safewash Inks made a huge difference for me. They stay the same consistency long enough to get through a print set, are easy to thin with their Safewash Oil, and are easy to clean up with soap and water even though they are oil-based. Being linseed oil based and non-toxic is a big deal.
Next challenge was drying. The oil based inks dry in three stages – absorption, oxidation and polymerization — meaning they take a long time. It turns out that paper choice is super important. Finding paper made with no sizing, 100% cotton, acid free, with more random, broken fiber strands and with enough thickness is all key. Saint Cuthbert printmaking papers are a good choice.
Then learning some tricks like letting the prints get tacky (not wet) and sprinkling them with a bit of arrowroot, corn starch or pure food grade calcium carbonate. Chalk of the modern type is often made from less pure gypsum (calcium sulphate) and can cause issues with prints. But calcium carbonate both absorbs the wet ink and jumpstarts the oxidation process.
Now it feels like all the most basic “figuring it out” is done and I can get more serious about printmaking.
I’ve put together some downloads and information that will help you get up to speed using an Atari ST emulator. I’ve found that the Hatari ST Emulator works very well. Hatari is being updated regularly and even emulates the STE, TT, and Falcon. THE ATARI ST EMULATORS TO RUN HATARI ATARI ST EMULATOR MY LIST…
Williamsport Pennsylvania is home to the very oldest independently owned bookstore in the United States, OTTO Bookstore.
Each month, the bookstore features an artist in their store gallery, alongside the area’s best selection of books, puzzles, and more, plus their knowledgeable staff.
My work is featured in September 2024. Download the Artivive app (free on Apple and Google stores) to experience augmented reality on some of these pieces. Here is a page that tells you how it works and has links to the free app.
Williamsport Pennsylvania has a lot going on in the arts. There are several galleries downtown, one at Penn College, and many showings of artists in local businesses.
Lycoming Arts is the organization that does all things Williamsport First Friday and a lot more. You can learn about them here.
Each month, they feature an artist in their own downtown gallery, along with work from a local school district and a college artist.
My work is featured in June 2024. Download the Artivive app (free on Apple and Google stores) to experience augmented reality on some of these pieces. Here is a page that tells you how it works and has links to the free app.
Below are the current picks for the show. This curation is getting pretty close to final, after far more work than I realized these things take. I went through thousands of my photos from over the years, and had to learn about giclee printing, framing, and hanging.
Augmented reality (AR) has been around for a while in the art world, but I recently was asked to investigate it and do some demos for a local organization. Here are those experiments. To view the AR part, scan the QR code or download the Artivive app (free) here, then run the app and point…
Since 1999, I have done casual star gazing using telescopes: I never got into anything that could take astrophotographs until recently. I got a camera an ASI Air Pro controller from ZWO for the Pronto but after getting the eVscope, all that was too much work and effort. The eVscope sets up and is already…
I shoot lots of photographs everywhere I go. Like most people, most of the shots are not particularly artistic. This is a work in progress, a kind of a live lightbox to find the artistic. I am making successive passes at weeding out the bad stuff in hopes of distilling this into a quality curation.
I have been fortunate to be able to do some travelling, so the images are from a wide range of places.
Since my art school days, I have done a lot of graphic design and art direction. I have more time now to pursue my fine art interests. I am still drawn toward the immediate and generative nature of photography. I combine that with my love of serigraphy to create these collages. I print these on quality watercolor paper using inkjet technology, so that all evidence of the printing dots bleed together, producing a silkscreen-like final output.
My work tends to take images I find interesting and juxtapose them in non-representational ways and which draw on meanings or symbols from other, more historical roots, or to present images where the elements are representational but in visually dissonant ways.
I have also always been interested in found object art. One of my art teachers did a lot of sculpture using found objects. Some of my work uses “digital found objects” — 3d models of objects rummaged from industrial sites, and repurposed in Cinema 4D.
This is a small sample of the artwork created by James Rettinger, who taught for many years in the Art Department of Seneca Valley High School. He inspired many of his students to go on to become professional artists and many others to continue the study and appreciation of art of all types. He was…
I have been really fortunate. I have been to Florence several times and stood in front of this painting – for a long time – twice. It is like meditating as you look at its perfection. This is fine example of renaissance art, when Western artists began to paint in a much more humanist way.…
Every major impressionist exhibit I’ve been to has been very popular. As I write this, I am looking at my living room walls where we have 4 impressionist paintings and 1 from Klimt. So not surprised why impressionism is so popular. The best place for this sort of art is in France at the d’Orsay.…
Another of my favorite museums. So much stuff to explore. When we were there in the 1990s, we were looking for the lou, and happened by chance on a room containing the Elgin Marbles. These are sculptures from ancient times that adorned the frieze of the Parthenon in Athens. I think the Turks were storing…
The opulent palace of the French kings. A very nice virtual tour of both the grounds and the palace. Versailles Outside and Inside Palace of Versailles Virtual Tour – A Step into the Magnificent Past Welcome to our innovative Palace of Versailles Virtual Tour, your passport to one of the world’s most celebrated architectural masterpieces.…
The defining venue of museum mile. World class galleries and a nice website with some virtual galleries provided by google. The Met Streetviews The picture is from the parking garage, which makes it convenient to get to the Met – just take the 86th street transverse from the west side – through the park –…
This is one of those museums that can be done as a day trip. Drive to the Shady Grove or Greenbelt Metro stations and zip into the city. Take the Green or Yellow trains to Archive. The galley has a great cafe and always some surprises. Here’s a link to their online collections.
I think many people overlook the the Guggenheim, situated at the upper end of Museum Mile. But it should not be overlooked. The architectural wonder alone is worth the trip. To be just 3 hours from all the NYC museums is a blessing to us in Central Pennsylvania – most people who live in “the…
OK, this is fantastic. When I was at the Uffizi, I got close enough to The Birth of Venus to see how Sandro painted the whitecaps on the ocean. Amazing. This set of images put out in the cloud by Google let’s you be that close to these masterpieces. Use the tools to really really…
I have a good friend who has been to Russia and has a fantastic story about why he will never set foot there again. But in St. Petersburg, there is world class museum that I would brave the dangers of mother Russia to see. Scratch that. After what is happening in Ukraine, Russia is off…
The Finest Museum in the World – the Uffizi in Florence Botticelli’s Birth of Venus – with incredible high rez detail Leonardo’s Annunciation My favorite – Lippi’s Madonna and Child with Two Angels (model was his mistress and child)
I’ve been very lucky to have gotten to walk the Vatican Museums twice. There is a great little hotel right across the street from the entrance – the Alimandi. If you stay there and get advance tickets to the museums, you skip the usual blocks long line completely and make the whole day stress free.…
A stunningly fine rendition of the Sistine Chapel in Rome make sure – once it loads – to click the rightmost double arrows – that will start the magic
WARNING – Many of these images are just amazing and I have never ever seen such a trove of cultural imagery. But some of these images are also disturbing or explicit, so be warned. From the site: Them Thangs is an image blog run by Justin Blyth. Ritualistic Iconography Systems of symbols and pictures that…
Welcome to our page dedicated to the study and practice of Iaido, a classical Japanese martial art that focuses on the smooth, controlled movements of drawing the sword from its scabbard, striking or cutting an opponent, removing blood from the blade, and then replacing the sword in the scabbard. Iaido, or Iaijutsu, centers around Iai,…
Two things about my trip to Armenia back in the mid 2000s. 1. I was fascinated by everything there. I had less time by far to shoot photography on this trip than normal and yet I still shot more pictures than any trip I have ever been on. And now I wish I could go…
OK, so this is not a virtual museum, at least not exactly. But I did sneak a few of my interests into this site. You may have run into my page memorializing the famous Atari ST. Or my synopsis of my trip to the post-Soviet state of Armenia. Skip past these unless you feel like…
wood block art prints I’ve been working on setting up a studio to do printmaking using wood block techniques, oil based inks, and a Woodzilla relief printing press. The wrench I threw into this very traditional process is the additional of digital artwork, either from hand-drawn subjects or photographs, and moreso, an xTool 40 watt…
