Woodblock in Bullfighting

Design and copyright by Roland Lee 2012

 My latest work in woodblock printing are images of bullfighting. The event is sublime by nature which make for interesting images.  The image above is the final print and the images below show parts of the process of printing.

Design and copyright by Roland Lee 2012

Design and copyright by Roland Lee 2012

Design and copyright by Roland Lee 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paper Clip Sculpture

There is a wonderful and quaint collectible store called Mish Mash in the heart of Chinatown Honolulu, where I found vintage photos taken in Israel by an artist probably during the 70's and 80's. In wanting to creatively display them, I hot glued a bunch of paper clips into an empty Altoid container to create this sculptural image holder. Check out the other close ups below and feel free to leave a comment about what you think.

A Raw Heart

Give your heart someone this Valentine's Day! I did!

The "No. 4"

 Design Copyright Roland Lee 2012

Design Copyright Roland Lee 2012

Design Copyright Roland Lee 2012

I've emerged from my cave to begin posting some of my latest art designs and work. Recently, I've been motivated to do some woodblock carving and printing. Inspired and facinated by the work of the Japanese Ukiyo-e greats such as Hokusai, Hiroshige, Kunishige, Yoshitoshi, etc... I've sat down, got my carving tools out, drew a design, and began cutting. After doing a few prints on inkjet paper, I wasn't happy with the result. So with a roll of rice paper, I cut them to size and the results were better than expected. I could go on and on but the results are the above entitled the "No. 4"

Wind Chime Revisited

During the Labor Day weekend, a friend's daughter came over and was enamored by the wind chimes that hung by our front door. Little did she know the inspiration of making them came from the Bishop Museum and a wall display. Inspired to own this display I set out to make two panels by nailing over 3500 pailettes to these two boards. I purchased the pailettes from Cartright Sequins. She asked if she could pay me $.25 to make her a small panel. I made an offer that she couldn't refuse.
 I said, " What if I did this for you for free?"
Her eyes lit up and everyone in the room thought that I was just putting her on but here I am creating a hot pink board for her with left over pailettes.

Making a 2x2 ft. Wind Chime takes over 600 pailettes

She'll be so surprised when she receives this.

2 2x6 ft. wind chime boards that took over 3500 pailettes to create and over 40 hours of labor nailing them

Photos from the Brownie Hawkeye

So the results are in. . . I took a bunch of pictures with the 120mm film and they the camera yielded hazy and dream like photos. Actually pretty difficult to achieve naturally in this day and age with digital. The wonderful and unique thing about these photos are that they are 5x5" and not just the ordinary 4x6" or 5x7". The camera is from the mid-century and it had built up dust particles throughout the viewfinder and the lens behind the shutter. So, I took it apart and cleaned it. Currently I'm shooting another roll of film to see if the picture quality will improve.

Brownie Hawkeye Beauty

Browsing through piles of stuff that people have collected over the years at the Hawaii's Annual Collector's Show, there was one thing that caught my eye. A brown box with a lens that called me over from across the room. My eyes opened wide in excitement when I saw that the price was right and I asked the vendor if this Brownie Hawkeye still worked and he handed it to me while snapping the shutter to show me that it was in perfect working condition aside from a few scuff marks from 50 plus years of wear and tear. I reached into my pocket and handed him his money and I said, "I'll take it!" Two rolls of 120mm film are in development.  I'll post some pictures when I get them back from the lab.