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In the year 2000, Spike Mafford and his father Mike
Spafford began to collaborate on creating images of the “12 Labors of
Hercules”. At that time, Spike photographed the “actual sites” of the
labors on the Peloponnesian peninsula. Subsequently, he made chromogenic
dye-coupler prints of selected sites upon which Mike painted and printed
woodcut images of Hercules. That worked well but technically created an
absorption problem between the plastic surface of the photographic print
and the oil based paint and ink.
This present group of collaborative prints is of
the same subject but very different in process and appearance. In order
to work in a triptych format, Mike cut thirty-six woodblocks. Each block
was 8 inches by 8 inches. Spike created scans of each woodcut print and
made an acetate mask which he placed inside his medium format camera.
This allowed him to see and frame exactly where the block prints would
cover the photographic image for each labor. The use of digital imaging
changed the photo-print options and Mike wanted to print on Arches Cover
paper. For a number of reasons, Arches Cover is not intended for use in
an ink jet printer. Through trial and error, technical tweaking and
constant equipment cleaning, Spike carefully printed beautiful archival
pigmented ink images of respective “labor” locations in a triptych
format. Both artists had agreed to use sites in Washington State. Spike
photographed around the state, cataloging various labors and each
version according to the locations. He made notes so he could pair them
up once the digital prints were created. Of course, Mike made some
unexpected changes in Spike’s original pairings and that is what
collaborating is all about. After Spike printed the digital image
triptychs on 11 inches by 30 inches sheets of Arches Cover, Mike stacked
three of his woodblocks either vertically or horizontally into a jig.
Mike inked the blocks, placed the digitally printed paper on top of them
and ran them through a hand cranked table press.
Both artists agree that printing the water-based
inks on uncoated paper and printing the oil-based woodblock on top
creates an enhanced seamless presentation of the two mediums, it sets up
a relationship that is much stronger than their previous efforts. Both
are looking forward to their next collaboration.
Each
print is somewhat different so there is no edition number. |
