Maika Ueno

Last week a very good friend of mine, Maika Ueno, moved back to her home country of Japan.  Knowing that Maika would be leaving was pretty emotional for me, and it was rather hard to get in contact with her; I'll also admit that I'm not the most active in correspondence.  I'm going to make it a goal to stop being so shy about initiating contact so something like this doesn't happen again.  :(

anyways

Maika and I became close my sophomore year of college because we were both night owls.  It was pretty common for us to be the only two working in the studio; but after I came home from New York and she had quit school (BFA was difficult for her), I had a hard time working in the studio by myself.  It's rather lonesome to be by yourself in a large space, and it can be an emotional experience without having anyone to balance your sanity; and having someone else to problem solve when something goes wrong is incredibly beneficial.

 a very usual night.  maika hard at work, me waiting for screens to dry.

Most of all, Maika was dedicated to exploring and perfecting her techniques in reduction printing with linoleum cuts. 

(the process of reduction printing involve cutting into linoleum with a variety of sharp tools specific to the weight of the line or mark.  by removing an area of linoleum, rolling an ink onto the block, and sending it through a press to remove the ink onto paper, you are left with a print of the area you didn't cut. reduction cuts can be done on a variety of different materials: wood, plastic, plexiglass, or anything with a flat and soft enough surface to cut into)

this is a great visual aid courtesy of http://artinspired.pbworks.com/

it's also a great website for more information on different processes

Maika Ueno's Work

This is a rather early piece that I believe was apart of her BA show.  Maika also worked with lithography, unfortunately I do not have any of the lithographs.  Someday, though. 

This was also apart of her BA show.  While Maika and I were going through her vast portfolio, I noticed that daisies never appeared again in her work.  

Me: You didn't work with daisies much.  Why did you choose daisies?

Maika: I wanted to use a sunflower, but I couldn't find any

Me: Why a sunflower?

Maika: Because they always look up. They look up to the sun.

This actually isn't a correctly printed wood cut; hence the inconsistent black.  I just happened to find this; Maika was notorious for keeping her work scattered in the studio on top of various cabinets.  I was away in New York while she was exploring this way of working.  Here she is exploring mark making; I'm guessing she was working with wood because it was cheaper than linoleum.

one of the most admirable qualities in maika's work ethic was the amount of time she spent proofing

i do not own this print titled "snowball"; instead, i own the proofs.  its probably kind of creepy that i kept so much of maika's "trash", but this incredibly arduous process of proofing different colors is what makes maika's work beautiful and successful; she was truly dedicated to perfecting her skills. 
(i wish i could plug another student artist, shaina davis, here.  even her proofs are successful; alas, she has no website that i know of)

 Again, this is not inked enough.  This is actually a very labor intensive process called mezzotint. 

i suggest this website for an illustrated description

She gave this to me as an artist proof (a print not apart of an edition).  As you can see, this composition and mark making skill was explored in the previous wood cut. 
This print was apart of her time spent in BFA in which it was required of her to write an artist statement.  I feel as though this might have been the most challenging part of BFA for maika; she was not nearly as skilled as native english speaking students in clarifying her ideas through writing. 

This is her artist statement (revised):

Throughout my time spent as an undergraduate student, I have explored the concept of "migration".  

I was inspired to work with imagery in nature one day when I was walking to school.  On my way, I found a gingko leaf in a blanket of oak leaves; however, there was no gingko tree in sight.  Like the gingko leaf, I have experienced migration.  In my work I explore questions of origin and relocation.  Where did you come from? Where was your final destination? And did anybody wait for you there? 

Are you afraid of the head winds and where they will take you?

 Drunkards!
<3