Finding My Way to Child's Play

The development of my Child’s Play series has truly been a story about the importance of play and experimentation in my creative process. 

Years ago, I purchased a vintage children’s edition of Bingo (copyright 1939) from an antique mall. I didn’t have a plan for the box or its contents, but I liked the look of it, and it was probably less than $10.

Sometime last summer I placed a stack of game cards in one of my drawers for paper in the flat file that sits under my worktable. I’d been making small collages on library catalog cards, so perhaps I’d transition to these cards at some point.

Around the same time my son was finishing a major room cleaning and I took a few of the pieces from a discarded, wooden Rokr puzzle for my “things to try” box.  As you may already know, I do a lot of experimenting with found objects to find new gel printing textures.

As fall arrived I started some new “Texture of the Week” experiments (which you can also find on this blog). One day while playing with those Rokr pieces, I briefly panicked after realizing I hadn’t laid out paper to pull the paint already rolled across my gel plate. (Rookie mistake!) I quickly opened the flat file below, grabbed a few Bingo cards and pressed them onto the plate.

After pulling up the cards, the paint left on the plate had faint numbers and letters mixed in. I didn’t expect the numbers and text from the game cards to transfer to the gel plate. But that’s exactly what happened, an accidental image transfer with these old Bingo cards. 

While I was intrigued and excited by this discovery, I wasn’t sure what to do with it. Not being a photographer or illustrator, I didn’t have much interest in gel plate image transfers at this point. I would get asked about them in my workshops and knew enough about the technicalities to help students who had questions, but it just wasn’t my thing.

Fast forward to the start of this year and I noticed some patterns emerging in my sketchbook. I had been leaning towards brighter and bolder colors for a while, but I was seeing a definite shift to primary colors, much like that old vintage box. And, those original Bingo cards had found their way into a few sketchbook collages too.

I started working on monotypes using the vintage cards for image transfers, but something wasn’t quite right. The work felt a little tight, and the scale wasn’t working for my larger plates. Plus, I sort of hated the idea of using up all the vintage cards on image transfers.

It occurred to me that copying the original cards would allow me to scale up and perhaps create cleaner transfers on the gel plate. Fortunately, I have a laser copier/printer at home, so I started making copies with these settings:

• High quality copy paper. I prefer 32lb. smooth premium Hammermill paper
• Black & white copies, using the available settings to darken the black
• Running each copy through the printer 2 times for more toner build up. (if I didn’t move the original it wasn’t a problem)
• And enlarging as needed.

I probably could’ve scanned a few cards and played with the contrast and sizing in Photoshop instead, but trying to copy different sections felt more experimental and quicker. I wasn’t always sure what numbers or letters I'd end up with. (The below photos shows many copies, several post printing.)

I was feeling good about building my new abstract series around these Bingo graphics, but I felt like I needed a bit more to tie it all together. What about the other shapes and textures for this work?

A few years ago, I was an instructor for the Gel Printers Summit, a series of online gel printing lessons, and the focus of mine was on creating a texture palette. Basically, creating a limitation on the variety of found objects or textures used while building a print or series of prints. Just like with color, size, or other materials, using too many different found objects and textures can lead to a lack of focus and too many different competing shapes.

My own collection of found and discarded objects for gel printing includes a wide variety from children’s toys and games, much like those Rokr pieces that started me down this path. I have several sheets of circles left after punching out tokens for new board games, Legos and Duplos I’ve “borrowed”, the end of a broken croquet mallet, foam disks separated from their Nerf toys, and so much cardboard (which is really the ultimate toy, isn't it?)

After a bit of playful printing to test textures and colors, I decided to center the overall theme for this work around the idea of childhood play. My collection of found objects from discarded toys represent items from childhood that start out loved, but eventually end up broken, outgrown or thrown away. Many of these items have repeating circles or straight lines, which was also a nice visual complement to the Bingo card graphics. 

Perhaps having children 8 years apart has given me a more sentimental perspective on “play”. I can compare their rooms and see the change coming in a few years. Soon I won’t have so many board games, Legos, or Frozen figurines sitting in my living room.

Here are a few new works from “Child's Play” that I've added stitching to.

I’m not sure if I'm done with this series, so perhaps the story will continue developing, but so far it’s been a good reminder about the discoveries that come from trying new ideas and “playing” like a child.