miriam dema: mountain landscape

so for a while now i've been taking walks around my neighborhood. usually in the afternoons or early evening. one of the things i really notice is the light against the various layers of hillsides and mountains.

i also notice this light every time i drive from our mountain woods down the 210 freeway towards glendale and downtown los angeles. the way each hill is a different shade of blue, gray, brown or green depending on the time of day. the stuff in the air...the time of year.

it's mesmerizing really...how something can appear so near and far at the same time becuase it starts to look translucent. that something so solid as a mountain with texture, homes, trees...can be reduced to an opaque, frosty, milky color. so i've been thinking of that for a while and trying to figure out how i wanted to screen print it.

i decided i wanted to hand cut the film positives for this project so i woundn't be tempted to use photography as a filter. i couldn't see how i could capture the detail and smoothness of the edges and then translate that to a printed film positive for the printing. so i cut them out of solid paper. it was interesting to cut them and then go for a walk and see the details i was thinking about confirmed in my minds eye while looking at the mountains and hills.

when i printed the various layers i used a translucent ink that i gradually tinted darker as i printed to create a feeling of solidness and translucence at the same time. i want to make more of these with different mountain edges and using different colors. maybe some with a bright background color for a sunset and maybe that glow that happens right after the sun sets.

that's what i've been thinking about lately with regards to art. and slowly working on. now that the weather has turned less hot i may may more progress on this than through the summer.

also- when you screen print a really big area with ink the screen has the possibility to leave the paper at different speeds and in a suction sort of way....the further the screen is from the paper the less this happens but you have to push down more on the screen to get a full impression of the ink.

it's a fine balance to have, the areas where the screen pulled away from the paper as i printed created a slight wave pattern- normally loathed in screen printing in this case it alluded to the mountain roads, paths and fire trails that dot our landscapes here in los angeles. i really like this part. it reminds me of all of the roads in los angeles mountains that no longer go anywhere and have been abandoned. you can see this in the middle right to the print. just another example of why actual hand pulled prints can be more interesting and richer than something digitally printed or even printed on a press where everything looks exactly the same.