Documentary segment about Peaceable Kingdom

Geographics in Van Nuys California with artist john Swanson, who is currently bending over his drafting table preparing another color separation for his print the Peaceable Kingdom, john, I wonder if I could distract you for a moment and ask you why you selected the Peaceable Kingdom as

a theme, But they've selected the Peaceable Kingdom. And because I've used this theme in other paintings that I've worked on. And also in 1971, I printed that was over 20 years ago, I made one of my first silk screens using that theme. And at that time

it was much more primitive because I was a I was just beginning my work as an artist. And I I like this thing because it it's the aspirations of many people to seek a place of peace and looking for peace on earth. But also it also

reflects the the the child as the bringer of peace and the child as the herald of peace. And I think that the symbolism is very rich and it's from the the prophet Isaiah in the hebrew scriptures. But I like it because it uh it could be

looked at in many levels. It can be looked at as the, the psychology of the human being, trying to be at peace within oneself in dealing with the wild beast and with the animals inside of us. You know, the r our uncontrolled nature and trying to

be at ease with that nature and trying to understand it and work with him. And and then also it can be looked at as to as the Earth and and people on earth, trying to protect the earth and the animals that live there Uh, for the

future and not to destroy it. And you're commencing this print, you're working from an acrylic painting that you did of this scene. Is that right? Yes. I I made this particular version that I'm working on is based on opinion that I did in 1990. And it's

a painting, it was a large canvas Where I painted it with acrylic paint was 40 x 60, wasn't it? 40 x 30. 40 x 30. And the I have I don't have the opinion anymore, but I do have a photo that I made of it. And

that's what I'm basing my drawing on that. And that's that's the photo that you've got in front of you on the drafting table over there. Yeah, yeah. But the finished print of course, will look much, much better than this this photograph. And it does because when

you paint, it's all impressions and you're working quickly and you're creating as you go along. Uh, but it's it's not studied when I do each for each color that I do. I make a stencil and the stencil may take many days to do. And as I'm

elaborating on that particular color, I can use that color in many ways in a more studied way. And so in some in some uh manners. It's it's more richer and more complex. Uh, it compensates for the lack of subtleties that you get in opinion but I'm

trying to make it as when I do any project like this, I try to make it the best I can and I put every effort I can to make it beautiful. And so uh as I'm publishing it, I will spend as long as I can to

on working on each stencil and then the whole project to make it work. Right. How long did it take you to paint the painting? The painting took me about two months. Two months. And how long do you think it will take you to finish the syrah

graph? Well, I go by last year when I printed the great catch which is about the printers table that took us six months and it had 47 colors and this one I may take six months but I hope to finish it by October whatever that would

be. And then and and I hope that we will have probably close to 50 colors as well. And when you say you're working on the stencils now, technically that's what is called the color separations right? Yes. For each eye As we're printing, I'm creating it. So

I decide that the stencil I'm working on now is the would be the 8th color and it's green. And so I'm I'm projecting as I've done it over 20 years silk screening and so I'm projecting what I want. I know it's gonna be a transparent color.

I know it's going over other uh colors and also I know that I wanted to not only be uh flat color, but I also wanted to add all kinds of details and create the the drawing of the picture itself and add to the textures. So it's

like a tapestry and so that I'm creating it as I go along and I'm experimenting and some of its surprises and some of it I know because I've done it before and so I have a good grasp of it. But sometimes we try to create elements

that will be new experimental for me. And when did you commence work on the Syria graph? I started on 16 May and today it's 14 June and in that time you've put on how many colors? Well we've done six colors today. We've printed the six color,

it was a blue in the sky. And then um and then we've got another color that I've prepared. And that's a sienna which is on the screen right now. And we'll be printing that tomorrow. But these stencils have taken me most of them have taken from

4-5 to 6 days to do. So it's very painstaking, meticulous work. Yes it is. And but it's my work. So it's not that I mean for you it's not painful, it's painful to listen to it to it. But I mean it's exciting seeing it developed and

it's exciting scene be you know to as it prints and then you keep getting more involved with you know how to use the color and how to use it in different areas so that you keep enhancing the colors that are underneath and making more rich and

beautiful colors by adding these tones. And so uh there's it's like a dedication and and in a way it's much easier because you're you're so totally absorbed in the printing and in creating this uh that there's a lot of excitement because your whole life is kind

of taken over by the work and the printing project. So in some ways I find it quite enriching and and for me and also it gives me a chance to collaborate with the printer and we share a lot of ideas and it's there's a lot of

close uh work together with the printer and he um also um it works closely with me. We look and we study the print as we're going along. We decide what we can do what would enhance the project. And so I really enjoyed that collaboration and I

enjoy that. The chance to work on this print Jim butterfield, the owner operator of Aurora's Sierra graphics where john Swanson is print The Peaceable Kingdom is being created. And I wanted to ask him if he could walk us through the process of the silk screen printing

process itself starting from the top. So what is basically the first thing you're going to do in this process? Well, we start with the original image, usually a painting and we take that image and we have a uh the artist to align matrix of it. In

other words, he does a tracing of all the shapes and forms and he'll use that line matrix for his master and for the first colors to be translated and that translating, it's also known as color separation. Yeah. And these and the color separations are done one

at a time, one by one, is that right? Right. And in this case we're using the primary colors to get the secondary colors. So we print large areas that involve uh yellow, cyan and blue, which are the primary colors. And then we get our oranges uh

purples and greens out of the first three printings, we basically have a full spectrum and from that point the artist works on specific colors to build and enrich them. Okay, let's say you've already done you the the artist has done the artwork for the first color

separation. What do you do after that? We take the color separation and expose it on a sheet of contact film. This is the stencil. And after the exposure we washed the film and there we have a negative image which is open area that is then attached

to the screen itself creating a negative through which the ink passes through later as a positive image. Okay. And having done and that then you you have your color and you're going to work on mixing that color, is that right? Yes. We mix the colors with

original artists, oils and each one is specifically done with the artist and then back to the screen again, you tape and block out the screen. Is that right? Yes. Once the film stencils on the screen, the rest of the screen must be masked off and checked

for pinholes and for quality and then taped at the edges and then attached to the press and then you're ready to print. Yes. And we take the mixed color and we print on a clear Mylar sheet that is taped to the press bed. Uh and then

we take the master print that has the color separation attached to it in registration and we slide it under the Mylar sheet until it fits perfectly. And then we tape it down at that point and add the registration tabs to the press bed. Then each sheet

that is inserted on the press bed will be in the exact same spot and the printing will be in registered. And then it's just a matter of operating the press and printing the run. Yeah. And checking for that, the images printing properly sharply and in register

as certain little uh inconveniences may occur along the way that that you just have to watch out for, we check the color with blank sheets of paper to make sure that all of the printing is accurate. And this process has to be repeated for each color

from from the artwork to putting it on the screen to mixing the new color to putting it on the press. Is that right? And each print goes through a handling process with each colour. And in this case a 47 color print, Uh each print is handled

at least about 5-6 times per color. So we have to use great care to maintain quality on a sheet of paper that has been handled hundreds of times through its through its completed state. So this is a very labor intensive process. It requires a lot of

attention on the part of everybody involved. You really have to pay very close attention. It doesn't take but a couple of minutes of not seeing something go wrong that you can cause the destruction of many prints in a short amount of time. So we're always on

our toes. Well, thank you jim. And from this point on, we're going to see exactly what is entailed in the process that jim has outlined for us. This red is gonna change everything. I think not. Yeah, I can hear

it sticking your print is still a little bit wet. I'll leave it out. Let's put it on the table. I'll put it on. Excuse me. No thanks. It might be on the bottom. Is it on the bottom? Let me get the brush and brush it off

because I think I scraped a lot of stuff. Is your spray? Can would that be of any help? I think it's picked up some, it picked up some can you wipe it out there? I think it picked up some brain right where the where the foot

is. Okay, okay, let's go. So john's original artwork has been exposed to a low grade photo film that Sandy is developing just with ordinary tap water. The areas that's that we saw in black India ink will appear transparent on on

the blue photo film. If the blue emotion, the blue chemical will will will fall off or we'll just wash off and that will be open and wherever I didn't draw will stay blue and that will stay on the screen and block out the increase. So and

it takes a little bit of time and then and then you'll you'll watch it emerge. The image will come out in reverse. It'll it'll wash out and put it will look in reverse, connected to the negative. The negatives and creating a negative is a positive. Oh,

okay. Get used. Mhm john are you going to modify that color in any way when you add it to the ink? Does it change its appearance? Its texture And we're going to mix it in with transparent base. But

by the time we start to test it on the print then we have to make modifications and try to either make it darker or lighter depending on how, how it covers, but It usually takes 3-4 tubes to get a fairly good colour. So we'll have to

do a lot of mixing and as you can see the screen over there, there's a lot of information that's going to be printed, it's too light, it won't give, it won't registered, but if it's too dark it'll overwhelm it. So we have to find a middle

ground. So it's a lot of experiments and that image on the screen, that's, that's what's going to be printed today. It won't be printed today, it'll be tomorrow. That is what's going to be printed with the raw sienna that you just showed us, we're going to

take a look at the stencil stencil, is that I did, this is the, this is actually the stencil or what is called the color separation. It's a drawing I did on Mylar and this drawing, I had it on top of the um the

artwork and I decided which colors to where I wanted that particular color and now that's been transferred to the silk screen, this is the reverse, we're looking at it from the back side. So, but wherever I've drawn that's what's gonna be open on the silk screen

and when he pushes the ink through the ink is gonna go on to the paper wherever I've drawn and so that's on the screen there and that's the raw Sienna color that you've just shown us and this is the, what you used to draw on the

Mylar was an opaque black and so that when they put a light on it, it registers wherever it's opaque. That's where the screen will be open, wherever it's clear, it's all blocked off. And and that material that's on the screen now, that blue material that we

see, that's, that's a low grade photo film. Is that correct? It blocks out the screen ink so that no ink will go through.