Photographer David Mollenhauer Visits the Studio

One of the things I love about making art is that it allows the rest of us to see the world from the artist's eyes.  Only you will see a scene from your unique viewpoint, and your art reflects what's important and beautiful to you.

That's one of the things that makes these photos exciting to me; they allow me to see my familiar art studio in a new light -- through the eyes of photographer David Mollenhauer.

If you'd like to see more of his work, visit his website here:

https://www.mollenhauerphotography.com/

David shot these images with a Nikon Z8, using a Petzval lens.

The images below were photographed with a 70-180 mm lens on the Z8.

I'm blown away by these images.

Part of that is due to David's artfulness in the composition, lighting, and treatment of each scene.

I think it also has to do with the fact that I spend time in this studio every day.

This room was transformed over the last four years from a living room to an art and photographic studio. At first, everything was stripped away. Slowly, artworks and artifacts have accumulated, building the energy of the space from a mere room into a place of discovery, exploration, and creativity.

I see the result of all of this effort with new eyes when I flick through David's photographs in a way that I never noticed over the gradual transformation of these past four years.

Isn't that the beauty of each of us sharing our own unique viewpoint through our art?

Many thanks to David Mollenhauer for his visit, his photos, and for allowing me to share his work on my blog!

Making an Autumn Leaf Stamp

Inspired by the beautiful autumn leaves, I wanted to create a print for some greeting cards.  I began with leaves picked up on a walk, and sketched them in my nature journal.

When I was happy with my sketch, I made a copy to play around with, adding swirls and other design elements in pen.

I transferred my design to the block I intended to carve using an old trick. I laid down several heavy layers of graphite with a 4B pencil on a separate sheet of paper, then placed the graphite transfer paper graphite down on the stamp block, and placed my design face-up on top.  I drew slowly over each line with my mechanical pencil. 

After transferring the design onto the stamp block, I carved away everything but the design I wanted to print.  I used Speedball Lino Cutting tools to carve a Speedball Speedy-Cut block.  This is the type of block that's soft as cream cheese, and super easy to carve.  You have to be careful with the edges to keep from getting broken.

Finally!  I had the stamp cut.  It's best to wash off your stamp before stamping with it the first time -- I skipped this step, and wish I hadn't!  As I inked the design onto cards, little discarded bits on the stamp made goobers on subsequent prints. 

I cleaned up the stamp and pad, and then created some exciting artworks!

One delightful discovery I made after I printed a bunch of cards was that the design worked no matter which way I turned it.  Now I have a stack of fresh cards to send to family & friends, and that makes me happy.

Welcome Autumn!