From Wednesday, Nov. 22, through Friday, Dec. 15, at the Ochi Gallery, on 119 Lewis Street in Ketchum's Light Industrial area, Seattle, Wash., artist Tracy Lang will present her ink print images created from wood cuts at an opening from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Lang has been cutting wood since 1999 and creates cuttings that are 7 feet tall by 7 feet wide. Her woodcuts are used to create ink print images on Japanese pure Kozo paper.
"What we call rice paper is actually Mulberry paper, and it's the thickest," said Lang. "I'm trying to get a real antique feel, and I want to get real textural. I am using the rough side of the paper, oil based water soluble ink, huge rollers and three to four people to roll on the ink fast enough so that it doesn't dry."
Lang purchases her paper from Japan where this type of paper has been produced for thousands of years. At $200 a sheet, "it is a huge deal to order 10 sheets," she said.
The paper is very porous and extremely thick, but once it has been wrapped up and printed on it softens.
"It seems like a ritual," said Lang. "It's an incredible experience getting people together and getting the ink right. We practice for an hour before we actually do it. Accomplishing the printing is amazing because of how emotional it gets. It is so nerve wracking, and I need an available crew of six people to print an image," Lang said. That crew includes a babysitter.
She has been doing figure work her whole life and became bored. She decided to take her portraiture work to another medium and focused on enlarging body parts.
"I took the idea of feet and actually looking at the heels of a foot," said Lang. "In-three hour drawing sessions, I place the model on a podium to get a worm's eye view."
Lang likes the idea that if you look at "monster" feet, you are small compared to another human, and it makes an impression on you.
"I want to mesh expressionist imagery with impressionistic ideas. I'm trying to marry the two traditions," Land said.
Magnifying body parts, Lang's etchings of tendons and veins look more like a topographical map creating an impression beyond the human body part.
Lang draws with a bamboo stick, which is an ancient traditional process that she believes is really fundamental to her work. She then takes her small sketch and blows it up on a blue print machine.
"After I blow it up, I glue it to two pieces of plywood and carve it out with a Dremel tool. It takes a 40-hour work week to have that happen," Lang said.
Creating few large pieces instead of many small pieces, Lang limits herself on purpose.
"I want to step away from the usual," she said. She's excited to come to the mountains and show in the huge space of the Ochi Gallery, which was made possible by her very good friends, Robin Leavitt and Terry Friendlander.
Tracy Lang?s large prints need several people to roll ink on the imported Japanese pure Kozo paper.
