Now that I have condensed my project to simply the process of printing with epoxy, what does it mean and why is it relevant? I keep dwelling on this concept so that I can find a use for the work I have been doing for the last couple of years. I have been doing more research and I can see thousands of used for epoxy casting and an equivalent number of products on the market that allow people to do hi-tech projects like heat resistant epoxy and hi-strength epoxy. It's quite amazing how epoxy is used in rockets, automobiles and jets, especially in combination with other materials like carbon fiber. What this means to little ol' me is still a mystery. My latest project was to screen print a photographic image with black epoxy and fill around the design with epoxy filled with aluminum powder. I have now coated the back with another layer of epoxy and two layers of carbon fiber. Two layers is not a lot when it comes to carbon fiber, but I am trying to be a minimalist and see if the print can how it's shape. I could go a little further and add a layer of vinyl adhesive paper to the back, which helps with future applications, but would limit how the piece could be used in the future.
The first argument for this process would be the durability of the print itself. Most every other printing method that I know about is a coating, beside sculpting. Fresco plaster work is of course an imbedded pigment process and by virtue of this process frescoes have survived in buildings and walls for centuries compared to other printed and painted works on canvas, wood and metal. Plaster itself cannot however survive exposure to outside atmospheric changes and would quickly fail if exposed to water on and off for a period of time, so the frescoes that have survived have been done inside of buildings mostly. The idea of the embedded particle is what I have used from the fresco process while I have updated the materials to epoxies and metallic pigments that are readily available today. The durability of these epoxy frescos aka photo frescoes is from the embedded pigments and weather resistant epoxies.
Porcelain tiles and ceramic items also have proven that they can withstand the test of time given nobody drops a vase or breaks a tile. The high temperature firing of ceramics causes a chemical reaction of the glaze to crystallize on a microscopic level and the color is essentially an inert material inside the piece itself. I'm not an expert on ceramics, but the idea that ancient vases tell the stories of cultures past is as good of an example as I can provide. The fragility of ceramics is a problem that can't be overcome and the images that are put on ceramics are painted or placed on with thin layer or transfer paper, thus making them a coating or applique, not the piece itself. The design could not stand on it's own without the vase or tile carrier and at any moment a bull could come by and ruin the entire thing. I like the idea of the pigment embedded into the ceramic, but once again, for exterior use and extreme weathering you have to pick up the pieces to get something back after years of outside exposure. I propose that these epoxy pieces would be able to withstand impacts of many types, submersion and burial, yet have the original design able to be power washed and scrubbed back into existence.
Cements and mortars are also a good set of materials that I have experimented with and have had some success with. The molded results that I have gotten would withstand significant amounts of exposure. With cement I have mixed the pigments embedded into the cement while it is being set and even tried to print with cement. It could work on a very rough scale, buy the shrinkage of the materials and the final weight of the pieces make them difficult to handle. I can't get the same detail with cement as I can with epoxy. I've coated some cement items I've made with polyester resin and can make a rather thick-skinned panel with cement, but these panels are one wayward lacrosse ball toss away from breaking, unless you make them over 1-2" thick and then they are too heavy to use easily and too heavy to move around. Epoxy fresco prints or panels could be made as strong as cement, for practical purposes, and still be light enough to use. The materials definitely cost more for epoxies, but the thinness would offset some of the cost and a lighter piece requires less structure to hold it up, so theoretically epoxy panels could be a lower or equal cost depending on the final use of the materials.
Metal structures like cars that are painted with urethane paints and specialized coatings are a good example of a durable material in our everyday lives that could stand the test of exposure and be resilient. To find comparisons in the art world I would have to think about metal sculptures. Generally metal sculptures are made with the raw materials and are coated later with paint or materials that keep them from deteriorating. Which means that over time the exterior coatings are the determining factor for strength of the object. Painting on metals with enamel or epoxy isn't a bad idea, but I could also apply an epoxy fresco print, like a sticker, to the metal and get the same effect. The metal is the substrate and although it is durable itself, it usually provides the structure of a piece or is the art itself, regardless of the design that may or may not be painted on top. I like metal as a product for durability but the coatings that go on top of it would in fact be the design coating, unless I can print with hot metal, not even considering the weight factor. The epoxy fresco prints that I am making are using cold casting techniques that mix atomized metal particles into the epoxy which makes it a cold and wet version of printing with metals in a plastic form.
Molded objects are a superior form of encapsulating artistic designs into our world and jewelry is the best example of how objects can be made using inert materials that can last a long time. Gold and silver come from the ground to begin with so they have already proven their worth. Worth is the problem though with making jewelry and I can't even begin to imagine making a print with actual gold or silver. I can use particles in my pieces that resemble gold and silver, but in some ways it cheapens the pieces to imitate highly valuable materials. In a sense I look at my photo fresco epoxy pieces as large photographic pieces of jewelry, sort of like a shape on a necklace, but on a larger scale and of less expensive materials. I truly enjoy using some decorative metals in the epoxy like brass, copper and bronze, but due to the cost I have to limit the use of these metals until I know that it would be relevant to the pieces I am making. Currently I use mostly shiny aluminum to imitate the silver in a photographic print and iron oxide for the black. This is subject to change, but the basic idea of black and white photography can be duplicated with these two pigments. Jewelry will last as long as the material takes to break down and with the exception of exposure to uv rays, I think my photo fresco prints would also hold up as well as the pigments due.
Etching and plate photography is interesting, but the thickness of the printing layers is miniscule, although I imagine with some acids things could be made significantly deeper. Printing plates are not my field of expertise, but there is something to be said for the durability of scratches and etching on metal or rock since it would be the equivalent of an molded object, but in a strong durable surface.
No comments:
Post a Comment