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CLAY PRINTS by Milagros Melendez

Natural Connection was originally created for the poster project, “Yo! What Happened to Peace” in California. The requirements were that all submissions were 19x24 in (48.5x61cm), and that they be printed by hand (as a silk screen, etching or lithography).

I had been developing a form of block printing using unfired clay for about a year when this opportunity came to me.

Of particular importance to me, printing is a traditional art form that has enabled me to apply the techniques of drawing, sculpting and painting with each design.

The clay is first fashioned into a plate of any size. The image is drawn and then sculpted into the wet medium and allowed to harden as a relief. Then I apply acrylic paint (because of its quickness in drying) to the relief and transfer the image onto damp paper, usually by pressing the paper onto the plate with slight pressure. Afterward, I’ll add paint by hand to the design using watercolor. Because clay is a porous medium, unfired, the results often vary, creating many individual works from a single image.

With Natural Connection, I produced 20 prints in total. One is in the permanent collection of the Transport Gallery in California in 2004.

From then on, I created 18 different designs; thirteen of the designs are shown below. One of the 18 was designed for an arts-promotional group called The House That We Built and the rest donated to the ART for AIDS silent auction to benefit Housing Works/ presented by UBS, October 26, 2005.

GROUP 1 (six images)                       TOP These are the first four designs that I created; printing until I had fifty of each image pulled. The 'Face' morphed into the last two images, 'Goddess' and 'Monkey'. print size: 4x5 clay, acrylic paint, watercolor (each hand colored, hand signed and numbered) 2003 PRICE: Donated to the ART for AIDS silent auction to benefit Housing Works in New York City, 26 October 2005; presented by UBS.

5 FIGURES

SPIRAL

LITTLE GIRL

FACE

GODDESS

MONKEY

GROUP 2 (two images)                       TOP These prints were created for, a dancer/ choreographer- a benefit to help raise money for a cultural exchange to Cuba. print size: 5x7 clay, acrylic paint, watercolor (each hand colored, hand signed and numbered) 2003 PRICE: Donated to the ART for AIDS silent auction to benefit Housing Works in New York City, 26 October 2005; presented by UBS.

Dancer

Drummer

GROUP 3 (five images)                       TOP These designs were taken from original paintings and drawings that I've created from the last few years. For information about the original works, please contact me at: milagros@milagrosart.com print size: 5x7 clay, acrylic paint, watercolor (each hand colored, hand signed and numbered) 2003 PRICE: Donated to the ART for AIDS silent auction to benefit Housing Works in New York City, 26 October 2005; presented by UBS.

GRAZING

THREE

HEAD

SLEEP

CENTRAL PARK                       TOP