Pharaoh Ai / trudeau 2011 pen and ink

Pharaoh Ai / trudeau 2011 pen and ink, a photo by trudeau on Flickr.

There were many deified kings in the vast Egyptian pharaonic era; this is one about which you've heard little. Because he was exhumed only this week.

Pharaoh Ai is a spontaneous sketchbook exploration. One of the things my hand trends to when not guided by purpose is the vizier's visage.

And you can tell that I'm intrigued by the idea that the image is composed of a vast number of interlocking cross hatcheries. The portrait oscillates because of the many lines in the body of the work.

Tequila Williams, red ink, Aug, 2011

Tequila Williams, red ink, Aug, 2011, a photo by trudeau on Flickr.

Prints in basic colors.

Pine board and lath frame.

Recent breakthroughs include a new frame style: slab of wood painted black, print glued to the board. Lathing frame butted at top and bottom.

Also, Insty Prints converted the black ink to prints using colored lines: got versions of this print in red, blue, green and yellow.

I like it and consider it progress. The ink change was provoked by a change in the kitchen. "Creole Riders" and "The Interlocutor" came down and in their places are two of Talbot's still lifes, a yoncopin on table and bowl of red apples. I saw that black lines, no matter how sinuous, don't really reach the energy level that a room gets from a color display.

Printing with color ink is a way to move into the difficult world of hues.