Steal That Painting

As part of my print major requirements in my junior year at MECA I took a class called Photo Litho with professor Alex Kahn. The three prints posted here were done that semester for an assignment called Steal That Painting. We had to take another artist's painting and make it our own, and we had to make three variations of it. I chose Edvard Munch's painting, The Hands. Each print has three layers of imagery printed from three separate photo litho plates. To form the first layer of imagery, I used Photoshop to put my own head on the woman in Munch's painting, using one of my self-portraits from 1997, made a photocopy of it and shot it to a photo litho plate. This formed the central image in the final prints. For the second layer of imagery I hand drew the images surrounding the figure with sharpie on three separate pieces of mylar and shot those to three photo litho plates. These images were all taken from my dream journals. Since I was working with Munch, I decided to use imagery about sexuality, death, and nature, recurrent themes in Munch's work throughout his life time. The third plate was a photoshop manipulation of the hands in Munch's painting - I turned them into flames. Photo litho plates are inked and put through the litho press just like litho stones. Registration is key with these multi-plate prints.

Edvard Munch
The Hands

Self in Yellow Room, 1997
pastel and pencil on Rives BFK, 11" x 15"
collection of Susan Beauchemin

Self in The Hands of Munch I, 2005
photolitho, 22" x 30". For Sale.

Self in The Hands of Munch II, 2005
photolitho, 22" x 30". For Sale.

Self in The Hands of Munch III, 2005
photolitho, 22" x 30". For Sale.