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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 21, 2017)
22 // COASTWEEKEND.COM Continued from Page 21 PHOTOS BY NANCY MCCARTHY Lynn Murray Albright, of Cannon Beach, displays the sea star she has carved onto a linoleum block at a recent 45-minute workshop in Imprint Gallery. Terri Churdash rolls ink over her linoleum block. The ink is distrib- uted evenly on the roller by first rolling it on a glass plate. NOW OPEN FOR LUNCH 11am-4pm Tuesday-Saturday CARRUTHERS 1198 Commercial Street Astoria, Oregon 97103 503.975.5305 Instructor Alisa Vernon puts a linoleum block, carved by work- shop participant Lynn Murray Albright, on a platform in front of the press. Once the square of ink on the glass reached a velvety sheen, Vernon knew the roll- er had a thin, even layer of ink and was ready to roll over Murray Albright’s block. The block was then placed on the platform in front of the press. Next, Vernon took a square of cotton rag pa- per, rough on one side and smooth on the other; the paper easily absorbs the ink on the block. She placed the rough side over the block, covered the block and paper with heavy felt and turned a handle on the press that moved a large roller smooth- ly over the felt and the block. When Vernon uncovered the paper beneath the felt, she revealed a print of Murray Albright’s sea star. “It has a magic quality,” Murray Albright said. “It’s like a surprise,” Car- rier added. ‘Positive and negative space’ Happy Hour Tuesday-Friday 4pm-6pm and 8:30-Close Lynn Murray Albright, of Cannon Beach, began work on a sea star, carefully outlin- ing the star-shaped legs with the blade making the wider lines, and filling in the legs with smaller lines. “I go out and look at the wall display (of artists’ prints), and I have a greater appreciation of their work,” Murray Albright said. The class had been on Kathy Carrier’s to-do list for a long time, and the Arch Cape resident brought her Portland friend, Terri Chur- dash, along. “Cannon Beach has needed something like this,” said Carrier, who etched a cup with rising steam into her linoleum block. “I had my art therapy today.” Meanwhile, Churdash, a quilter, knitter and weaver, created a quilt pattern resem- bling the inside of a butter churn. After the blocks were carved, Vernon demonstrated how to prepare the ink to be rolled onto the block. Wear- ing rubber gloves, Vernon put down a strip of soy oil-based ink on a glass plate, dipped a roller into the ink and rolled the ink onto the plate. She listened as the roller went over the plate. As the ink adhered to the roller, Vernon said the sound was like “skin pulling off of a hot leather seat.” 240 11TH STREET ASTORIA, OR 97103 Once Churdash rolled the ink onto her roller and pressed the paper onto her block, she seemed pleased with her product: a large square containing 54 smaller squares and thin lines within the squares. The workshop was a learning experience for Churdash. “It reminds me to keep thinking about positive and negative spaces, especially the negative space,” she said. “You have to think where you want the ink to go, and where you want no ink to go.” An elementary school teacher, Churdash said the technique would be fun to try in her classes. “It would be a really cool thing” for students to do to illustrate what they learn about Oregon history, she said. “They might be able to draw a whale beached up in Cannon Beach — wouldn’t that be cool? Or Fort Clatsop, a canoe, an elk, or salt cairn buckets (used by Lewis and Clark’s corps). Wouldn’t that be a great display on the wall?” CW
