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Arts 1: Medium and Technique

Medium and Technique

In a general sense, medium is the material, or the substance out of which a work is made. The choice of medium is part of the meaning of the work. It is a signifier of meaning in the context of the work's total meaning Thus. it is not neutral nor merely incidental to the work. Medium in contemporary art has become increasingly independent of academic convention and has become a matter of artistic choice, conscious or intuitive, according to the concepts, values, feelings that the artist conveys in the work. In fact, art today involves the invention and exploration of new media and techniques, thereby expanding the range of artistic resources. TWO-DIMENSIONAL EXPRESSION In the two-dimensional arts. medium includes the surface or ground and the marking or coloring substances applied to it Practically all surfaces can be used as painting ground. The first paintings done by people were colored figures of animals of the hunt on the walls of caves. Since then, people have been painting on a wide variety of surfaces with the use of sticks, brushes, their own fingers; and applying dyes and pigments of different sources and manufactures. For easel paintings which are portable paintings usually hung on walls, the traditional surface is canvas, cotton, or linen. stretched on a frame and primed with a white or lightly tinted base. Most contemporary artists paint in the direct method or alla primo, in which paint is applied directly on the surface with a brush as it would look in the finished picture. The indirect or traditional method, on the other hand, consists in applying the paint in thin layers of transparent color. It includes the technique of glazing in which a transparent layer of oil paint is applied over a solid one so that the color of the first is significantly modified. Another technique of the indirect method is scumbling in which an opaque layer of oil paint is worked over another layer in such a way that small areas of the under color show through in an uneven, broken manner. While Impressionists and most contemporary artists paint alla prima, glazing was the technique commonly used by the Old Masters. Aside from oil, acrylic painting - or acrylic vinyl polymer emulsion paint - can also be used on canvas. Quick drying and water soluble, it can be applied in thin. transparent washes. as in watercolor or direct in alla prima painting with a thick impasto or piled-up texture. Paper, of course, is readily available, and the artists can use paper on hand to capture their insights into the passing moment. Paper is found in different thicknesses (measured in pounds). textures, and tones qualities which are taken into consideration by artists in the kind of the work they want to do. The first paper was produced by the Egyptians in the thinC millenium from papyrus, a marsh plant. This became the standard writing material in ancient Greece and Rome up to the 4th c. A.D. when it was replaced by parchment. During the Middle Ages, the beautifully painted illuminated manuscripts were done on skin. parchment, or vellum, and from the 14th century on paper. For watercolor. the paper is first soaked and stretched so that it will keep flat during the painting process. The water-based pigments are applied to fine paper as layers of transparent color stains. The wet-on-wet technique creates atmospheric effects in landscapes in which the white ground of paper is made to show through to provide the highlights. The dry brush technique is used to bring out fine details as in still lifes and portraits. Gouache is opaque watercolor or poster paint in which the pigments are mixed with zinc white to create a more solid effect. For Chinese watercolor and calligraphy, rice paper has been used in the long tradition of scroll painting. Recently, a number of our artists have engaged in the production of handmade paper from common plants in the environment, such as cogon and banana. Handmade paper has a particular organic quality that comes from its slightly uneven and fibrous texture. Likewise, its deckle edge adds to its personal and

non-mechanical significations. Cheesebloth or kotso is a common substitute for canvas, especially for large murals for public gatherings which can be rolled up after display. Kofso is also the material used for painting with dyes in a dye-resist technique similar to handmade batik. ln tac., batik, which is a Southeast Asian artistic tradition, is a painting technique. It is, of course, associated with textiles, but these have a lively style of design with a range of folk motifs in the particular coloration of organic dyes that give them a character distinct from that of industrial prints. Furthermore, artists in the Philippines and other Asian countries are beginning to use batik for landscapes and genre. Paintings are likewise done on wooden surfaces. Plywood, especially marine plywood which does not warp, is commonly used. Tempera painting, which was the most common technique of easel painting until the late 15th century, is traditionally done on a wooden panel. The panel is prepared by coating it with gesso, which is, in general, any white substance such as plaster of paris mixed with size or glue, to provide a smooth ground. To this surface is applied tempera which consists of pigments ground with egg yolk, producing a great luminosity of tone. The medium requires precision of style and thus lends itself well to detailed representation.

A mural is a large-scale painting in contrast to the relatively small and portable easel painting. A fresco is a kind of mural paintings on a wall, which, to ensure durability, must first be prepared by a coat of damp plaster. In true fresco painting, the artist works while the plaster is damp using water-based pigments which become incorporated into the wall itself. Michelangelo's monumental work on the vault, upper walls, and altar of the Sistine Chapel is an example of a fresco. Another two-dimensional medium is gloss or stained gloss. The latter consists of designs made from pieces of colored glass forming figures held together by strips of lead which themselves constitute independent design. Stained glass is primarily associated with the Gothic cathedrals of the 12th-13th centuries with their rose windows and walls of stained glass narrating religious episodes. How-ever, the medium has been taken up by some contemporary artists with innovations, such as setting the glass in concrete or some material other than lead. In 1956, Galo B. Ocampo, after studies in the liturgical arts in Rome, finished 73 stained glass windows for the Manila Metropolitan Cathedral. Tausug artist Abdulmari Imao has also worked in the medium in his sarimonok design for the Philamlife Building. Stained glass with secular designs of fruits and flowers to adorn residential architecture was a vogue introduced by turn-of- the-century Art Nouveau. Mosaic, another two-dimensional art, goes back to early Rome and to the Byzantine and Early Christian times when it adorned the churches and the catacombs. Its technique is simple but painstaking, small units called tesserae – originally these were chips from slabs of colored stone, marble, or glass - are embedded on a wall or a floor prepared with wet cement in such a way that their tiny facets reflect the light. While most mosaics had a religious or royal subject such as the Byzantine Empress Theodora and her retinue, some early examples had secular subjects. A villa in Pompeii (1st-2nd c. B.C.) has a large floor mosaic of a chained dog guarding the entrance. A mosaic meant to fool the eye is the "unswept dining room" in which morsels of bone and half-eaten fruits and nuts are scattered on the floor - complete with nibbling mice. In our time, mosaics are made from a large variety of materials: bits of colored paper, postage stamps, eggshells, and even butterfly wings. A fine example of contemporary Philippine mosaic is a chapel in Bacolod made entirely of different kinds of shells with Our Lady of the Barangay as the principal image. Tapestry became an important art in Europe in the 15th century. In the great medieval palaces. tapestries did not only adorn the walls but also served as a warm buffer against the winter cold. Nowadays, tapestry as the medium of a number of young artists belongs to the category of fiber arts. Some tapestries incorporate different indigenous weaving techniques and combine different fibers for textural interest. Others use heavy material such as burlap dyed and sewn in layers with abaca thread. Still, others create new fibers from local plants such as banana and saluyut and weave landscape and bird motifs into the fabric. Other tapestries do not have woven designs but are embroidered pieces or quilted trapunto. Collages are also a form of two-dimensional expression. Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso did the first collages by pasting printed texts from newspapers on the painting surface. Later, they also collaged rope and pieces of oilcloth to incorporate actual textures as well as to initiate a play between the simulated and the "real." Artists have made collages with bus tickets and bottlecaps, with maps and photographs. Imelda Cajipe-Endaya creates large expressionist paintings with sou-'ali panels; old crocheted curtains, towels and denim pants to bring out a sense of familiar environment and cultural identity. There is no end to the experimentation of materials to enlarge artistic resources and the vocabulary of form, as well as to get away from the dependence on

imported materials. There is painting on tile with colored glazes, as well as painting and sewing on tree bark. Pigment is not always applied with a brush or palette knife; some artists paint with a spray gum for a softly modulated ethereal eftect. For texture, some artists incorporate passages of frottage done by rubbing pencil over a piece of paper which is placed on a textured surface such as a floorboard or cement wall to get iis particular character. Another technique, decalcomanio, is done by applying pigment on two sheets of material such as paper, pressing them together to obtain random shapes, then drawing out their figurative potentials by enhancing them and creating recognizable figures. The same effect can be obtained by pressing sponges or crumpled cloth on the painted surface. Today, many artists prefer to work in mixed media, combining oil, acrylic, pastel with printmaking techniques and collage in one work. This flexibility often leads to the blurring of distinctions between painting and sculpture, betveen two-dimensional and three-dimensional expressions. But whatever the medium or technique, the important question is how it forms part of the meaning of the work. The graphic arts belong to two-dimensional expressions. The term is used to refer to "those arts which depend for their effect on drawing and not on color; in other words the arts of drawing and engraving in all its forms. " In a more limited sense, graphic arts refer to printmaking and illustration. There are four main engraving processes or graphic art techniques: 1. Relief. The sections of the woodblock or metal plate to be printed black are left untouched and those meant to be white are cut away. A single black line has the wood on both sides of it cut away by engraving knives and gouges. For color prints, a block must be made for each color along with a key-block which carries the overall linear design. To relief belong woodcuts, linocuts. rubbercuts, and simple potato cuts. A Philippine artist who has done outstanding woodcuts is Rodolfo Paras-Perez, 2. Intaglio. The relief process is reversed, for here the surface does not print but the ink is held in the engraved grooves of the metal plate. Intaglio includes etching, mezzotint, and aquatint – the most commonly used of techniques. In etching, the copper plate is covered with a resinous coating impervious to acid. Lines are then etched or drawn with needles into the plate, thus exposing the metal underneath. The plate is then immersed in an acid bath which eats away the exposed parts. In mezzotint, deep tones and shadows are achieved by means of a "rocker," which is a blade with a curved edge composed of fine, sharp points rocked back and forth over the metal plate. This process leaves a mesh of small blurred dots which are scraped off to obtain halftones and light. Like mezzotint, aquatint is tonal in effect rather than linear. ln aquatint, the metal plate is prepared by dusting its surface evenly with powdered rosin which, when heated, melts and adheres to the plate When etched, the rosin particles protect the plate while the acid bites into the exposed areas The Philippines has a sizeable number of practicing printmakers using the intaglio processes Among the artists working in etching and aquatint are Brenda Fajardo. Carrpe-Endaya. Ben Cabrera, and Orlando Castillo. Artists into mezzotint include Fil de la Cruz and Manuel Rodriguez, Sr., a pioneer oi printmaking in the Philippines who has worked in all engraving processes. 3. Surface or Planographic Methods. These are different from the above two methods because they do not involve carving in relief or incising into plates. Instead. printing is done on a perfectly flat slab of stone, such as limestone, or a prepared metal plate. Lithography, which is a planographic method, is based on the antipathy of grease and water, effecting the separation of areas receiving and areas rejecting the printing ink. Glenn Bautista is one Philippine artist who has mastered lithography. 4. serigraphy or silkscreen. This process widely used for

posters and t-shirt designs requires a screen of fine silk and masks of paper or lacquer. paint is brushed over the sections which have not been masked, and different colors are possible by the use of successive masks. Likewise, color mixtures can be obtained by printing one color over another. Recently, new printmaking more challenge to the graphic arts. processes have been evolved, thereby adding Among these are callography which collages elements such as different textured materials, leaves, and so on on the surface to be printed; plantigraphy using stencils; thermography or embossing; xerography or photocopy. Another new technique introduced by Ofelia Gelvezon-Tequi is viscosity printing which allows the application of several colors simultaneously on a metal plate while color separation is achieved by a chemical method. Paper quality is particularly important in printmaking. Thus, a number of artists use handmade paper which they produce themselves. It is known fact that the art of engraving forges the "mysterious marriage of ink and paper." THREE-DIMENSIONAL EXPRESSION The term "three-dimensional expression" includes sculpture done by the conventional methods of carving, modelling, and casting, as well as other forms which e:<tend the range of sculpture in terms of new artistic concepts, media, and techniques. One of the oldest arts, sculpture has been done in a wide variety of media. The first sculptures were made of stone. These were engraved male and female figures on large pieces of stone called menhirs which had the religious function of serving as receptacles for disembodied souls. Other artifacts of the Stone Age were the fertility statuettes, stone figures called "venuses" such as the Venus of Willendorf and the Venus Laussel. In the Philippines, artifacts called likha, blocklike human figures with lightly incised features, were q<cavated in Calatagan, Batangas. Stone continues to be used as a sculptural medium. A large adobe sculpture by Ildefonso Marcelo marks the entrance to the U.P. Library, while along the University Avenue is a similar work, together with the reliefs on massive stone blocks h7 Napoleon Abueva. While the Egyptians made their statues of granite and limestone, the ancient Greeks used marble for their statuary, and their achievements in the art led marble to be regarded as the "noble medium." Marble continued to be the prime sculptural medium in the Renaissance with the sculptures of Michelangelo, in the Baroque Period with the works of Gianlorenzo Bernini, and in later works of classical inspiration. Some forms of sculpture are also made or-rt of alabaster, a translucent stone. The Chinese have a long tradition of jade carving. Clay is the medium of pottery, a three-dimensional form. All pottery can be divided into three categories: earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain. Earthenware is the most common of these - the ordinary palayok is an example; it can be sundried or kiln- baked . Stoneware goes through much higher firing which vitrifies the clay so that it becomes close-grained and non-porous. In porcelain, a Chinese invention, the body of the vessel is hard, white, and translucent. An important technique in pottery is glazing, which imparts a smooth finish, color, and decorative effects. Figurative sculpture made of baked clay is called terracotta, which is realized by modelling or shaping the soft clay material. Metal has been used as a sculptural medium from ancient times to the present. Many Greek sculptures were in bronze, of which Zeus Hurling a Thunderbolt is a fine example. Polycleitos executed the Doryphoros or rance-beare4 a model of classical Hellenic sculpture, in bronze. The traditional method for bronze sculpture is sand casting which involves making a mould of special sand from an original model of plaster of paris, inserting a core and pouring in the molten bronze. For small bronze pieces, the cire perdue or "lost-wax" method is commonly used. In cire perdue, the space between the model and the enclosing mould, both often made of clay, is filled with wax

fashioned with the desired design, while the soft outer mould assumes its shape as it hardens. When the mould has sufficiently hardened, the wax is melted and bronze is poured in its place, which when cool bears the desired design and shape. The cire-perdue method is an important part of the Malay metalworking tradition. The T'boli use it for their figurines and jewelry made of alloys of bronze, brass, and copper; and the Maranao around Lake Tugaya use it for their brassware. With time and exposure to weather, bronze acquires a greenish patina which has an artistic value. Aside from traditional casting, there is a process developed by the Caedo father and son sculptors (the sons did the sculptures for Himlayang Pilipino) in which the figure is built from bronze shavings pulverized and passed through a sieve until they have the fineness of talcum powder. These are then combined in exact proportions with chemicals possessing blinding properties. The bronze substance is poured into a mould where it subsequently hardens. Contemporary sculptors have made use of different kinds of metal in different ways. unlike other media, metals have the properties of ductility, that is, they can be drawn out into wires; and malleability, that is they can be shaped by hammering or melted, cast, moulded, or pressed into predetermined shapes. In contemporary sculpture, metals such as bronze, steel, iron, and aluminum have been cut, welded, cast, moulded, polished or patinated, producing durable and permanent results. While Alberto Giacometti did wiry, nervous, attenuated figures in bronze interacting across an open space. Constantin Brancusi used the same material to convey grace and harmony. Among our sculptors, Eduardo Castillo uses metal sheets with verve and dynamism whether in the abstract or figurative mode; solomon saprid creates out of welded pieces craggy, expressive figures in action, while Virginia Ty-Navarro builds her figures with a "pointillist technique." Conrado Mercado does open cage constructions with steel rods. All cultures have used wood as sculptural medium. And the Philippine hardwoods, narra and, molave, are among the best in the world. Aside from their extreme durability, they have a warmth of tone and a natural coloration, which ranges from dark brown to yellow and reddish hues; as well as a fine-grained texture, woods evoke the forests from which they came, as well as the atmosphere of the human dwelling. Abueva, while he has also sculpted in stone and metal, is still our foremost sculptor in wood. He has done large figures in wood, abstract pieces, retablos for a chapel, and imaginative wood furniture. The two-sided crucifix suspended at the center of the Chapel of the Holy Sacrifice at U.P. Diliman is his work. Another sculptor in wood, J. Elizalde Navarro, has done expressionistic masks and figures with a strong, "primitive" quality, In the dearth of wood for sculpture, some young artists have turned to other sources such as the heavy, weathered wood from railroad tracks or the stairs and beams of demolished houses. Not to be overlooked is the bamboo, the ubiquitous plant of the tropics. Francisco Verano has done bamboo sculpture to suggest indigenous music making. Junyee, a Los Baffos artist, has discovered his materials in forest vine, seed pods, and tree barks for his hangings, installation, and scatterworks. A number of regions in the country have woodcarving traditions that go back to pre- colonial times. The Ifugaos and Kalingas of the Condilleras carve the bulol, male and female guardians of the granary and the household. The fearsome bihang figure meant to drive away evil spirits is made of the root of giant fern, In the South, the Maranao have their okir and the Tausug ukkil woodcarving traditions. The sarimanok and nogo designs of the male okir are found as three-dimensional forms or as ornaments of musical instrument such as the kulintang o{various household utensils; or of the torogan, the datu's house which features the panolong, an extended beam intricately carved in open work okir. In many

parts of the country, the woodcarver's art finds expression in furniture making. Betis fr:rniture feafures floral and curling vine designs in openwork with miniature finely turned balusters. In Paete, Laguna, however, the woodcarver is very often a santero or maker of santos. Paete, since the time of Jose Rizal who was visited in Dapitan by two Paete wood caruers, has remained an important cqrfier of religious images; the town's secondary occupation is the making of tokos, brightly colored paper mach6 animals. A neighboring town, Pakil, is known for its filigree sculpture of toothpick trees and fantasy fans, fiesta ornaments they call the pahiyas-tambog made from the cayetana arrd matong-alrrur woods of the Sierra Madre. For the woodcarvers of Paete, the best wood for santos is batikuling because it is tough and repels termites, although other woods such as naua, kamagong, langka, and marang are also used. An encarnador is one who has mastered the technique of coloring the face, hands, and body parts of the wooden image with flesh tone. In the traditional process, the carved figure is twice coated with a native gesso made of a mixture of fine white clay or kesong puti mixed with glue made from boiled cow or carabao hide. This is to provide a solid and non-porous surface for the paint is applied over it, In the estolodo technique used for the area of the robes, the gesso is gilded and paint is applied over the gilt. The glt undercoat lends a warm luminous tone, and ornamental motifs are excreted by lightly scratching away the paint with a fine instrument to bring out the gold underneath. In the 1%h century, Filipino sculptors, such as Leoncio Asuncion of the well-known family of artists, also worked in ivory and perfected a technique of painting on the material in such a way which renders the color permanent. With the Industrial Revolution new materials were produced which had lasting effects on the medium and techniques, if not also on the concept of sculpture. Aside from industrial materials such as glass, chromium, and aluminum, there appeared synthetic materials such as plastics. in the 50s, Steuben Glass invited Philippine artists to execute designs on crystal, thus bringing to the fore the artistic potential of the medium. Today, the gloss medium is associated primarily with Ramon Orlina who fashions it into free standing sculptures or integrates it into a structural component. As for plastics, the Constructivists were the first to use them. Naum Gabo used plexi-glass celluloid, nylon, and lucite with stainless threadlike steel springs to create sculptures in which space seems to flow through the transparent materials. Luminal sculpture which makes use of light bulbs is a marriage of art and modern technology. The use of non-traditional and non-academic materials thus led to concepts of sculpture which went beyond its original definition as solid mass and actual volume. Kinetic art introduced the element of actual movement. Three-dimensional collage consists of pasted materials of all kinds, mostly paper, formed into a solid bulk (although there is also sculpture in the form of origami). lf large pieces such as rubber tires or mattresses are brought together, then it is an assemblage, as in the aggressive compositions of American artist Robert Rauschenberg. There are likewise collages or assemblages made of discarded junk, metal and machine parts, as well as those made from "found objects." Driftwood, shells, tough forest vines, stones, and detritus from the sea are called "found objects" when brought into an art context. Their shapes, textures, emotional and literary associations enter into the meaning of the work. Among new forms of three-dimensional expression are box sculptures in which the work is composed of boxes of different sizes, with each compartment an object of particular context and meaning. Another form is empaquetage or wrapping objects or even parts of buildings in sheets, opaque or transparent. The social realist Edgar Fernandez tightly wrapped a jumble of mannequins with a blanket to convey

the effect of figures smothered and suppressed, thus articulating certain political connotations. Then there are also forms which seek to make a mark or modify the environment, such as earthworks which modify the natural landscape by making large depressions in the ground or building structures in the water such as a spiral jetty, or scatter works which set figures randomly in an exhibit hall or in the open air; stabiles which are large figures; or constructions. and installations. hangings or environmental art, in general. such as the Czech artist Christo's Valley Curtain consisting of an orange sheet of nylon polyamide and steel cables spanning 391 meters along the U.S. West Coast. Taking off from three-dimensional expression is conceptual art which stresses the primacy of the underlying concept or principle in a work. This may involve. "Formalization" in which a familiar object or "ready-made" is removed from its original context. such as the kitchen or bathroom. and brought into an art context. the gallery; it may involve time or process as when a work is accomplished through a series of telephoned instructions through a period of time: it may entail audience participation as when the visitors are enjoined to act upon or make a mark on an object so as to complete its meaning. It is here. too, that three-dimensional art links up with theater in the "happening" or performance art. The most successful of these often express social protest, especially since the art forms being fluid and ever-changing always remain outside the established norms. For the two-dimensional and three-dimensional arts, there are in addition three properties that belong to medium in general: s\ze or scale, format. and frame Except for the cases in which they are decreed by convention, size, format. And frame belong to the realm of artistic choice which conforms to the meaning or content of the work. Scale can be very large or very small. At one end is the bronze Colossus o/Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, which stood over one hundred feet high in the Greek harbor: at the other end is a painting on a single grain of rice as Hokusai is said to have done. Murals are large-scale because they are meant to address a large open-air public, such as the portable murals paraded in the parliament of the streets during the anti-Marcos rallies in Manila in the 80s. When painted on walls, they belong to the life of community and usually crystallize in visual symbols the concerns and aspirations of the people. Because of their communal character. outdoor murals, which are done by collective interaction, often bear a political content synthesizing the community's history. issues, concerns, and interests with which the ordinary members can identify. Murals are not meant to be outdoor decorations which a small minority foists on the community. Neither should they be magnified versions of easel paintings because size, especially in the case of large-scale or miniature works, is part of the meaning of the work. Artists, for instance, may work in large scale in order to draw the spectator into the dynamism of the painting. Some abstract artists do large paintings to create an environment of colors and shapes or to saturate the viewers in color fields. But a common motive for large scale works is to be able to unfold a panorama of history or to convey the sweeping o impulse of a people's movement for change. Examples for these are the Mexican murals of Jose Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siquieros, and Dego Rivera. In the Bulwagang Katipunan of Manila City Hallis Carlos Francisco's History of Manila. Certainly, size is part of the meaning of sculpture; For one thing, there are subjects and themes that are not appropriate for small-table sculpture. Among these are historical figures or, possibly, themes such as anti-nuclear protest, because small size will tend to diminish their full import or domesticating their emotional energies in a way that heroic figures and potent popular symbols become reduced to figurines on a coffee table. On the

other hand, sculptures for a house interior or table sculptures, because they are of human scale and are accessible to touch, are best when they invite thoughtful reflections, possess an integral aesthetic form, and a degree of complexity to sustain interest. In sculpture, too, size is described not only in terms of length and width, but also in terms of mass or volume. Because sculpture is three dimensional, its size should be proportionate to its setting, as well as to proximate figures and objects. Thus, the size of a public sculpture or monument in an open space should be in proportion to its environment. A small sculpture, no matter how well-made, loses much of a large open space. It can also be dwarfed by adjacent buildings. Format can also enter into consideration in understanding a work of art. While most paintings have rectangular format, there are not a few paintings which are in square or circular form. Their departure from the traditional format points to intentionality on the part of the artist. In Raphael's tondo or circular painting of Modonna and Child, the format brings out their integral self-contained relationship. For the abstractionist Piet Mondrian. the square symbolizes intellectual order and for Kasimir Malevich. the assertion of the people's supremacy over nature. American artist Frank Stella created shaped canvases with geometric figures. Some young Philippine artists have made paintings which join together panels of plywood of unequal shapes and lengths, each with its own figurative episode as in a spatial montage or juxtaposition of images to create meaningful synthesis. There is no traditional format in freestanding sculpture, but in a low or high relief, the format may be determined as a part of the building. The format can be a rectangular pediment or the horizontal section of the f.rieze in Classical or Neoclassical architecture. As in the relief figures of the Porthenon, it is not only the high aesthetic quality of the figures themselves that counts but the graceful ease and naturalness in which they accommodate to the format. The frame can also affect or modify the meaning of a painting. The style of frame, whether of wood, gilded or elaborately handcarved and polished, or of plain aluminum, implies a social and cultural context with various associations which tends meanings to the work. Mondrian, for instance, refused to frame his work in the traditional manner because the surrounding frame would affect the spatial equilibrium of his composition. Artists prefer either to have an unobtrusive frame which does not interfere with the meaning of the work or to make it participate with its own design as an active element in the significations of the painting. The frame, however, is essentially a Western invention that came with the development of portable easel paintings in oil on canvas. In Classical Chinese painting, paintings are done on vertical or horizontal scroll. the exquisite clasp and lining of which are part of the visual art. Spreading a horizontal scroll is like gradually unfolding a winding landscape continually revealing new elements and surprises. Architectural Materials and Methods In general, architectural materials are of five kinds: rock such as stone and clay; organic, such as wood; metal , such as steel; synthetic, such as glass and plastics; and hybrid, such as concrete. Materials are chosen according to their availability and according to the building design which requires the selection of materials of particular qualities. According to Paul Jacques Grillo, three qualities of material are considered in the selection of material for the building: "structure, which determines the particular way it reacts under stress, and will determine structural design and form directly; texture, which directs the choice of tools to use, that is in accord with its internal structure; aspect, which tags its particular color and outside skin after tooling. " Furthermore, architectural materials are also chosen in terms of their character that signifies social values. Thus, stone

denotes strength; marble, power and permanence; wood, warmth; brick, practicality; and metal, lightness and impersonality. In architecture, materials are used for structure or for veneer. Contemporary architecture, however, is far more concerned with structure than with veneer and surface orientation. New industrial materials, such as structural steel and reinforced concrete, have placed the emphasis on structure. Five methods or systems of architectural constructions can be distinguished: 1.Lashed construction. This kind of construction prevalent in the tropics is assembled by manual skill alone, without the aid of fabricated tools for sawing, mortising, and so on. According to Grillo, the method of lashed construction "is also the most wholesome, as the material is used in its natural state, each piece being jtxtaposed next to the other, without wounding its structure. The structural members may be bamboo, twigs, posts, and the ties may be made of willow shoots, rattan, rope, and so on. As a result, extremely light structures are created that can withstand cyclonic storms by offering the least resistance and by being able to bend easily. The whole structure is articulated on quantities of joints that never can be absolutely rigid, and insure to the whole work a great suppleness." In this method, the roof and sidings are fashioned separately then fitted together by lashing. This is true of the bahay kubo, the roof of which can be assembled on the ground then mounted and lashed on tightly to the posts by means of strong "ligaments" made of flexible roots or stems of rattan. Wall sidings, which are light windscreens usually made of split bamboo woven in herringbone patterns to the form sawali, are also assembled on the ground separately. Fernando Zialcita points otrt: 'What keeps the sidings firmly in place is not the house post. With the help of rattan lashings, horizontal bamboo studs clamp the sidings together on both sides; at the same time these studs enter through holes into the sidings's vertical support: bamboo poles that stand between the roof beams and the floor sill." 2. Post-and-lintel construction. This simple method of construction is as old as the pre- historic Stonehenge in England. This circular megalithic structure consists of trilithons (three stones) in which two upright stones support a third stone spanning the two. The early Egyptians and the Greeks used this method of construction which is practised till today. The basic structural elements of the post-andlintel construction are the two vertical posts and the spanning horizontal lintel or beam forming a right angle where they meet. It can be used for stone, wood, and metal. According to Taylor, two related requirements must be met: "the lintel must be sufficiently strong in both compression and tension to span the space and support the required load without breaking; the support, must be rigid and sufficiently strong under compression to bear the weight of the lintel and its load without crumbling." The bahay-na-bato made of stone, wood, and tile is an example of post and lintel construction. Its massive wooden posts, haligi, staked into the ground about three meters deep, rise from ground to the ceiling to support the floor, trusses, and a sloping tile roof. The posts of unhewn tree trunk often stand clear of the walls to leave a free space for the structure to move in case of earthquake. 3. Arch and Vault Construction. Construction in stone based on the arch permits a greater span between the supporting posts or columns than that afforded by the post- and lintel system. This is because, according to Taylor, the arch "transmits the pressure of weight above the opening downward through the columns to the ground, mainly as compression, with a minimum of tension against which most materials are weaker." Holding the stone units of arch in place is the keystone, the wedge-shaped piece at the summit of an arch. While the round arch is the most common, other arch types are the pointed arch, the ogee, and the horse-shoe arch favored in Islamic

architecture, among many others. Arches of the same size laid together consecutively form a uault. The most common kind is the barrel vault, which as an extension of the rounded arch in depth has the appearance of a tunneled roof and may be as long as desired, forming an arcade. When two-barrel vaults intersect at a right angle. they form a groined vault. The dome is a hemispherical vault which, when supported by a circular wall, transmits its weight to the base evenly along the entire wall. Its weight over openings can be carried by four arches and four interventing pendentives – triangular segments of a sphere -- at right angles to each other which further distribute the weight among four piers or columns forming a square base. The San Agustin Church in Intramuros built in 1804 has a barrel vault and a media naranjo dome made of solid stone over the crossing. 4. Skeleton construction. This type of construction was made possible by the development of two modern materials: structural steel and reinforced concrete or ferroconcrete which combines the strength of concrete under compression. Since the skeletons made of slender beams of steel are strong and light, high-rise buildings such as skyscrapers are structurally possible. Thick, solid walls of stone are no longer necessary for structural support; instead, the new building itself can be raised above the ground on stilt-like posts, leaving the ground area free for garages and driveways. Doors and windows can be of any size. Because concrete is a fluid material which can be molded into a shell-like structure, buildings in this material can be of any shape, thus opening the way to greater creativity in architectural design. In Manila, the Philamlife Building on U.N. Avenue and the National Press Club near Liwasang Bonifacio are constructed in light structural steel with a framework enveloped by a glass skin. At the U.P. Diliman campus, the Chapel of the Holy Sacrifice designed by Leandro Locsin exemplifies concrete Shell construction. Nicholas Polites describes the structure as follows: "The 3- inch thick concrete shell spans 29.26 meters and is supported by a ring beam that in turn is supported by 32 reinforced columns measuring 1.06 by .36 meters. The shell ends at a smaller ring beam at the top center of the dome. This ring beam forms a skylight through which the triangular-frame bell tower pierces dramatically to a point from which the central cross hangs over the altar. The total span of the structure from the bottom of the curved columns is 36 meters." 5. Cantilever construction. This type of construction also makes use of steel and reinforced concrete but is particularly characterized by the projection of a unit of the architectural design beyond its support. The cantilever principally requires that the tensile strength of the material be enough to withstand the load on the other side of the point of support. The latter may be a column or pier defined in architecture as a stone for sustaining vertical pressure. The cantilever principle is seen in bridges where the two halves are supported only on both ends or in buildings in which elements jut out considerably beyond their points of support. An example of the cantilever construction is the Cultural Center of the Philippines building on Roxas Boulevard. Its principal feature is a massive block of travertine marble which is cantilevered 72 meters over the base of the building. Supported by strongly arched beams, it seems to float above the sculpted podium.

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josephkitchen0 · 6 years

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Farm Poo Paper: Don’t Pooh Pooh It!

Why on Earth would you make paper out of farm feces? Turns out there are a lot of reasons. Typically, with normal paper which comes from trees, the trees are cut and chemicals are added to separate the fibers from the tree trunks. Have you ever driven past a paper processing plant? The whole town stinks. Paper from trees also aids in deforestation.

Poo paper does not include any chemicals. Handmade paper is stronger and more appealing. With poo paper, your fiber source for the paper is a byproduct of your homestead, which can be turned into profit. Another reason to make poo paper is that it is fun and makes great cards, stationery, art, and decorations. Making farm poo paper is not a crappy alternative business idea – it’s a great one!

About 5,000 years ago Egyptians were pounding papyrus together to record text and art. Around 100-200 AD, Mayans in Mexico were making paper in a similar fashion with different fibers as well as many other civilizations around the world. Even though other people were making paper, papyrus is what most people think of as how paper originated. The word “paper” is derived from “papyrus.”

To make farm poo paper, extract any type of plant fibers from the poop, make a pulp out of those fibers and once you have the pulp, you can make paper.

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Elephant Poo Paper

Just like it is important to choose the best chickens for eggs if you are going to start an egg business, you will need to choose an experienced fiber producer to start making and selling a handmade paper. Turns out elephants are excellent choices. For those homesteads that do not have elephants, Michael Flancman owner of Alternative Pulp & Paper Co., Ltd. which specializes in poo paper, says there are quite a few other choices. On his website, poopoopaper.com, he sells paper products from animals ranging from pandas, elephants, and moose to more common farm animals like water buffalo, donkeys, horses, and cows.

When choosing your alternative fiber-producing paper maker, there are two things to look for when you choose. The first is that it must be an herbivore that eats a highly fibrous diet. If your livestock is fed a lot of grain and pelleted foods, the papermaking is not going to work. Animals should be free range and eating a lot of grass or hay material. Secondly, the animal should have a somewhat inefficient digestive system that doesn’t completely digest and break down all the fibers. You are looking for shredded, but mostly intact plant fibers. Sheep and goats would not be good choices for papermaking.

After you collect a few piles of excrement, you can start the cleaning process by placing them in 50-gallon metal rain barrels. These vats filled with water allow the foreign material, like pebbles and dirt, to drop to the bottom. The fibers will stay on the top.

This vat, filled with water, allows foreign material to drop to the bottom. Plant fibers float for easy collection. Courtesy of poopoopaper.com.

Your customers and you will want clean, odorless paper. To continue the cleaning process, remove the floating fibers and boil them for four to six hours. Flancman says there are two reasons why the fibers need to be boiled. The first is to make the material supple and turn it into a cellulose state. The second is to get rid of any bacteria. It is poo after all!

Boil your mixture until it results in an oatmeal-like slurry. Courtesy of poopoopaper.com.

The mixture should be at a full boil (212 degrees) for the entire time. This allows the cells of bacteria to be destroyed. You know the mixture is ready for the next step when it results in an oatmeal-like slurry. The longer the mixture is cooked, the smoother the product will be. This cleaning process does not use any chemicals like chlorine or bleach. It is only water. Therefore, after you are done with your first batch, you can make other batches or use the manure-tea liquid to fertilize the area’s vegetation. After the boiling, strain the fiber.

After the mixture is boiled four to six hours, strain and dry the fibers. Courtesy of poopoopaper.com.

To make a strong, well-bonded paper, you will need to add additional plant fiber. Flancman suggests adding coconut husks, hay, and banana stalk fibers. Corn stalks, pineapple husks, mulberry bark, and other local seasonally available plant material will work too. Blend these pieces with the poo paper. If you would like to dye the paper, now is the time. Use non-toxic food coloring during the blending process.

Flancman’s company then takes the pulp from mixing and blending machines and forms poo balls. The spheres are similar in size and weight. After years of practice, they know just how much fiber they need for their standard sheet size which is 80 x 55 centimeters.

These poo balls have had additional plant fibers added to produce strong paper. They have also been dyed red. Courtesy of poopoopaper.com.

If you have made paper before, the following steps will be familiar. You will need a mold to screen the fibers to form the paper. The mold can be made inexpensively by using a picture frame, hardware cloth, and a screen from an old screen door. Papermaking molds can be found easily at craft stores and online for between $25 and $40. Prices vary by size and quality. This process of screening paper has been around since 105 AD with the innovation of papermaking in China.

Molds can be any size or shape to create one of a kind paper. Courtesy of poopoopaper.com.

Once the fibers are spread, gently lift the mold. Courtesy of poopoopaper.com.

Place the mold in a large basin or sink filled with water. “Spread fibers evenly, being careful the fibers do not go beyond the screen frame. Once you have full coverage with no holes, a lot of water will go back into the sink,” Flancman explains. Once the fibers are laid evenly, gently lift the mold and place at a low angle out in the sun. After three to four hours, you can dry the paper at a sharper angle to fully dry. Drying time depends on paper thickness and weather.

Drying time depends on paper thickness and weather. Courtesy of poopoopaper.com.

“Once it is dry, grab a corner of the sheet and it will come off just like a band-aid,” Flancman says. Large sheets can be cut to form various products for your customers.

Like setting honey prices, there are a few variables to consider when setting poo paper prices. You’ll need to set the price high enough for your time and financial investments (handmade mold and dung collection). Normally when setting prices, you compare your product with the competitors. However, in this case, not a lot of people are creating this type of product. Setting prices also has to do with perceived value. Flancman’s website says poo paper is eco-friendly, creative and is a novel alternative to tree-pulp products which rely on the harvesting of forests.

Paper products made out of horse and cow poo. They’re fun, creative, and odorless. Courtesy of poopoopaper.com.

Plant Paper

If creating paper from animal feces isn’t your thing, you can always try skipping the animal digestion step and go straight to the source. Bast fiber from banana trunks, paper mulberry, milkweed, leaves from iris, lilies, and cattails, and various grasses are ideal for plant papermaking. With scissors, cut the fibers into one to two-inch pieces. Soak the fibers overnight and then boil, uncovered, outdoors until the fibers break apart easily. During the boiling process, you will need to add 3.5 ounces of washing soda, lye, or soda ash per pound of dry product to help remove impurities and to turn the leaves into a cellulose state — you don’t have the gut of an animal helping you anymore.

Once the fibers are supple, remove from the boiling water and rinse. Beat the fibers with a mallet, hand-blend them, or place them in a non-food blender. This is only to cut the fibers, not to macerate. Once appropriately beaten, you can screen the fibers in a mold and dry like poo paper.

If you make plant or poo paper, please share your story! We would love to see your final products. Making your own scratch paper, that isn’t scratch and sniff — is fun, eco-friendly and will sure make for an interesting story.

Farm Poo Paper: Don’t Pooh Pooh It! was originally posted by All About Chickens

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