Originality by Design: #musician

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The Art of Screen Printing ~ by Andrew Tyler

Screen printing, or serigraphy, is a technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade is moved across the screen to fill the mesh apertures with ink. Whilst maintaining downward pressure on the screen, a second stroke of the blade causes the mesh to touch the substrate momentarily along a line of contact. This causes the ink to wet the substrate and be pulled out of the mesh apertures as the screen springs back after the blade has passed. One color is printed at a time, so several screens can be used to produce a multi-coloured image.

Based upon a scale drawing or sketch, each of my screen prints are printed in a bespoke manner - there is no limit to how many printings or colours I might add...when the print looks complete, then I stop. In a way they are more like printed paintings.

‘Without the Aid of a Safety Net' is fairly typical of my approach. My method is termed 'reduction printing' as I start by printing a black square, this representing the whole of the image area to be printed and coloured. Next, I do a drawing using a brush dipped in a water based solution, so that, wherever I paint will block the screen mesh, leaving a black outline below it.

After that it is a question of filling in the colours in to the unblocked mesh, jigsaw fashion, gradually 'reducing' the printable area. This particular screen print has, in the region of approximately twenty opaque colours, after which I cleaned off the screen and, once again using blue filler, painted and then printed a grading tinted sequence, usually varying from black to a deeper blue/black on top of the previous opaque colours making a richness and depth of colour unusual in most screen printing personal processes.

Crazy but, true...all that effort and detail for a tiny edition of only nine. The images show the process and finished item, number 3 of 9, 13” x 17”

Andrew Tyler

Andrew Tyler is a Worcestershire-based artist and musician whose creative narrative exposes the duality of the human condition with humour and irreverence.

A masters graduate of Chelsea School of Art, exhibitions include The Royal Academy of Arts (Stowell’s silver prize), Bradford British International Print Biennale, Angela Flowers Gallery, Wrexham Print International, Cheltenham Gallery (prize winner 2004) , The Kowalsky Gallery, Number 8, Worcester Arts Workshop & Worcester Museum and Art Gallery. He has appeared in Time Out, Average Art Magazine, The Face & Worcestershire Living .” Simultaneously serious, amusing, touching and daring to unravel”, his art is in the collections of notables such as Bill Wyman and Oscar Grillo.

He produces his work organically, without conscious preconceptions, opening the field to whatever ideas and themes emerge from his subconscious or his experience. He then combines these ideas with other, more calculated objects and concepts to further stress these seemingly ‘miraculuous apparitions’. His uncompromising graphic style explores love, sex, romance, vulnerability, female empowerment, nightmares, loneliness, the list goes on; the very ‘lived experience’ of being human, in its beauty and in its darkness, in its joy and in its tragedy.

Breaking conventions from the outset (his most memorable early piece being a depiction of his primary school being blown to smithereens) Andrew has been equally defiant in his experimentation with etching, printing, painting and hand-drawn work. Unsettling and alienating the gatekeepers of the art establishment ‘Cabal’ along the way, Andrew continues to produce prolifically. He awaits your engagement, your applause, hiss or boo.
To connect with Andrew, please click on the links below.

FACEBOOK

INSTAGRAM

**All photos are property of Andrew Tyler and may not be used without permission.

What’s New and How-To~by Joanne Jaytanie

If you’re looking for a fun story, interested in hearing some new music, or admire a piece of art, Originality by Design is your next must-read. Stop by and see what’s new. We have a wide variety of guest bloggers with a multitude of subjects. And, we’re introducing a brand new page titled, REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS.

Are you excited to see what there is inside the pages of Originality by Design (OBD), but a bit bewildered?

No worries. I’m here to give you a quick rundown. You’ll become an expert in no time.

When you enter the OBD site, the newest blog post will be the first thing you see (like this one). To the right of this blog post is a list of PAGES. If you click on the HOME page, you’ll see the description of Originality by Design. And as you scroll down, the next block is once again, the newest post. Under that post is a list of the ten most viewed blog posts.

The next tab under HOME in PAGES is MEMBERS. There you will find an introduction to each of our members along with a link to their PERSONAL PAGE. Each member’s page can also be reached by clicking on their name in PAGES. Along with the MEMBERS, we have our REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS and the list of GUEST BLOGGERS – by year. You can also CONTACT US if you have suggestions, comments, or are interested in joining us as a guest blogger.

Have you found a person you’d like to read more from but can’t locate their posts?

If they are a MEMBER, when you click on their name in the PAGES, their personal page will come up. There you can read all their posts to your heart’s content. You can also find links to their other sites, such as Facebook, Pinterest, and their website. Each member’s page is tailored to their choices.

If you’re looking for a specific GUEST BLOGGER, REGULAR CONTRIBUTOR, even a MEMBER, and you don’t want to scroll through pages and pages, let me tell you a little trick. Scroll up to the very top of the blog. On the top left side, above the Originality by Design banner, you’ll see a “B” next to that is a white box. Just type in the name you are looking for and hit enter. Everything relating to that person will appear.

Those are the basics. So feel free to pursue OBD whenever the mood strikes. There’s always something new to read, a thought to ponder, or a laugh to be had.

Enjoy!
Joanne

Never Too Soon to Sell Out ~ by Dennis Green

The popularity cycle is the shortest it has ever been.

Pop culture used to live according to "The Five Stages of Life As An Actor," credited to Hugh O’Brian.

(1) “Who is Hugh O’Brian?”
(2) “Get me Hugh O’Brian!”
(3) “Get me a Hugh O’Brian type.”
(4) “Get me a young Hugh O’Brian.”
(5) “Who is Hugh O’Brian?”

Trust me, he was a big deal at one time.

Not that long ago, this progression played out over a number of years. But the kind of rapid rise and fall that we used to associate just with One-Hit-Wonders or Flavor-Of-The-Month teen idols now seems to be the rule for everything in entertainment.

If a movie doesn't debut at #1 the first weekend of the release, it's a disappointment. An author I know recently blogged to his fans that the most important thing they could do to help his new book was to buy it on Amazon the day of release.

“First week sales,” he said, “are the only ones that count.”

And don’t even get me started on technology, where it is perfectly OK for an Apple or Google to quit supporting a phone that is less than two years old.

It’s also happening in in pop music. I’m not necessarily talking about chart life. I haven’t researched average life span of a pop hit, although I bet it’s a good deal shorter than in the past. No, it’s the licensing of current songs for commercials.

Remember when letting a song be used in advertising was the worst kind of selling out, or the final refuge of a has-been who needed the money? Today, songs pop up in ads while they’re still on the radio as a current hit.

It also used to be that only a giant company could afford to buy the rights to a pop song. But Hy-Vee, a mid-sized Midwestern grocery chain, recently licensed Sia's "Unstoppable." No idea what they paid but I'll bet it was modest compared to what Chevrolet paid for "Like a Rock," even in 1991 dollars.

And even stranger, it’s now not uncommon to sell commercial rights to more than one company at the same time. A couple years ago, you could hear Phillip Phillips' "Home," in back to back commercials for totally different products. I can only assume that the company that only bought the instrumental "hook" paid a lower price.

Originally, the reason for a company to license a song was to connect a product with the good feelings we associate with a favorite tune. But now it can also be the other way around.

Sofi Tukker's "Best Friend" was featured last year a commercial for the iPhone X. The YouTube video was viewed 8 million times in just 24 hours after Apple's September launch event.

And that's not even an Apple Watch on her arm.

I guess it's now the musicians that seek the benefit by connecting to a much-loved product.

But on the up side, it used to take me months to get well and truly sick of a song. Now I can do it in about twenty days.