Studio Visit: Elbow-Toe
I recently visited Elbow-Toe in his sunny Brooklyn studio to talk about inspirations and processes for his latest series of linoleum cut prints. He put up his newest street piece, You Never Wash Up After Yourself, this weekend and here’s a little insight into how it came to be:
For this particular series, Elbow-Toe has taken imagery from classical children's literature – in this case Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle - as a point of departure. This type of imagery resonates with viewers, he explained, because it is something people are predisposed to recognize. The challenge is to subvert the imagery by re-contextualizing it in an urban setting and to imbue it with a new set of meanings. A cursory glance reveals a cute hedgehog hanging her laundry, yet closer inspection reveals that all is not what it seems.
In composing a piece, ET begins by sketching a study. He prepares himself by reviewing photographs of his subject from many different angles, absorbing clues for anatomical structure and making notes for possible color schemes. Individual elements are not worked out in great detail, as he prefers to leave room for improvisation in transferring the sketch from paper to linoleum. Having created a reverse image on tracing paper as a guideline, he commits his image to linoleum in charcoal, setting it with a fixative when he's satisfied with the outcome.
Potter's Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle has been transformed into a homeless woman surrounded by belongings recycled from the detritus of society. She lives in a makeshift shanty built out of an upturned cardboard box with an aluminum baking pan for a roof. Her cart is a converted sardine box with buttons for wheels; in it, she has collected garbage with a syringe. In place of the heroine's missing handkerchief, the central item in Potter's story, a pair of girl's underwear imprinted with cherries flap on a makeshift yo-yo clothesline while a used condom lies discarded in the foreground. While these elements cast a decidedly dark shadow over the scene, ET insists the imagery is open to interpretation. There is a message to be gleaned from the piece, he says, but not necessarily a moral.
Using a utility knife, Elbow-Toe begins the painstaking process of carving the linoleum. The knife allows him far greater control to create fine linework and a level of detail he cannot achieve using a gouge. A piece of this size can easily take him several weeks of 5 to 8 hour work days to complete. Having suffered from painful carpal tunnel syndrome as a result of having carved large woodblocks in the past, ET now engages several interns to assist in carving. Yet critical details such as hands or faces he carves himself. He also inks and pulls all of his prints, preferring to use sign writers bond because it holds ink well. The final step prior to bringing his pieces to the street is to hand color each print with acrylic paints, thereby enhancing the print with an added layer of definition.
I encourage everyone to reflect on the next piece of Elbow-Toe's work you encounter. You can be sure that each detail has been deliberated, each symbol carefully weighed and all elements delicately balanced into a unified whole. To the keen observer goes the reward of multiple layers of meaning waiting to be discovered…
For this particular series, Elbow-Toe has taken imagery from classical children's literature – in this case Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle - as a point of departure. This type of imagery resonates with viewers, he explained, because it is something people are predisposed to recognize. The challenge is to subvert the imagery by re-contextualizing it in an urban setting and to imbue it with a new set of meanings. A cursory glance reveals a cute hedgehog hanging her laundry, yet closer inspection reveals that all is not what it seems.
In composing a piece, ET begins by sketching a study. He prepares himself by reviewing photographs of his subject from many different angles, absorbing clues for anatomical structure and making notes for possible color schemes. Individual elements are not worked out in great detail, as he prefers to leave room for improvisation in transferring the sketch from paper to linoleum. Having created a reverse image on tracing paper as a guideline, he commits his image to linoleum in charcoal, setting it with a fixative when he's satisfied with the outcome.
Potter's Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle has been transformed into a homeless woman surrounded by belongings recycled from the detritus of society. She lives in a makeshift shanty built out of an upturned cardboard box with an aluminum baking pan for a roof. Her cart is a converted sardine box with buttons for wheels; in it, she has collected garbage with a syringe. In place of the heroine's missing handkerchief, the central item in Potter's story, a pair of girl's underwear imprinted with cherries flap on a makeshift yo-yo clothesline while a used condom lies discarded in the foreground. While these elements cast a decidedly dark shadow over the scene, ET insists the imagery is open to interpretation. There is a message to be gleaned from the piece, he says, but not necessarily a moral.
Using a utility knife, Elbow-Toe begins the painstaking process of carving the linoleum. The knife allows him far greater control to create fine linework and a level of detail he cannot achieve using a gouge. A piece of this size can easily take him several weeks of 5 to 8 hour work days to complete. Having suffered from painful carpal tunnel syndrome as a result of having carved large woodblocks in the past, ET now engages several interns to assist in carving. Yet critical details such as hands or faces he carves himself. He also inks and pulls all of his prints, preferring to use sign writers bond because it holds ink well. The final step prior to bringing his pieces to the street is to hand color each print with acrylic paints, thereby enhancing the print with an added layer of definition.
I encourage everyone to reflect on the next piece of Elbow-Toe's work you encounter. You can be sure that each detail has been deliberated, each symbol carefully weighed and all elements delicately balanced into a unified whole. To the keen observer goes the reward of multiple layers of meaning waiting to be discovered…
Labels: elbow-toe, process, studio visit
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