Page 14 - Sonoma County Gazette March 2018.indd

By Sharon Feissel Rik Olson, joviality
Rik Olson, Artiste Par Excellence
Rik explains his mediums. “Wood engraving is most difficult, then mezzotints. Linocuts are easiest. I transfer a drawing to a surface, whether wood, linoleum, metal plate, or scratchboard, as a map for where to carve or incise.
etched on his face, thrusts out a welcoming hand
en route to his studio.
It is a surprisingly atmospheric setting with clusters of specialized tools, books on his chosen arts, unfinished paintings against walls, several presses--even an unusable mid-1800s press missing teeth.
With wood engravings,
I work across the endgrain
of a block, allowing me to achieve very fine details. Wood engravings and linocuts are relief works with ink on raised parts.
“Anything surviving from the mid-1800’s is allowed to have missing teeth,” he quips. Drawers hold wood engravings
and metal plates. Stacks
of linocuts are plopped unceremoniously in stacks.
Linocuts, if printed in color, require a block per color. If yellow roses are in the drawing, one block will have everything cut away
“Wood engravings and plates are in drawers, because a scratch would damage them,” he explains. “Linocuts aren’t delicate. They’re a special linoleum composition for battleship decks and are relatively indestructible.” Glancing around, he muses, “I spend hours here daily, giving free reign to creative urges. This was
my man cave long before that expression existed.” The space holds Rik’s history as an artist. There is a path through it all, but, essentially, no spot remains unoccupied. Yet it feels cozy, rather than cluttered.
b b u ut t t t h h e e y ye e l l l l o ow w p p a a r r t t s s , , a a n n o o t t h h e e r r w w i i l l l l retain only green parts, etc. With each color printed separately, the paper passes through the press multiple times, each block adding its segment, with the end result being the image as originally conceived.”
Besides fine art, Rik does editorial
illustration, packaging and book
illustration, art spots, event posters, wine labels, and other niche items. The Sierra Club used
his logo for a quarter century before replacing
it. A piece for Walter Reed National Military Medical Center commemorated a new hospital wing. He has done a decal for The Bohemian’s Best Of Sonoma County awards and posters for Sebastopol’s Apple Blossom Festival, the town of Occidental, Main Street Days, in Grapevine, TX, and an event in Puerto Rico, with other commissions from Mexico, Germany, Italy, the UK, and Japan.
With mezzotints, I put the copper plate on a rotating board, a device I developed, and, with a
Internationally, Rik is a recognized master
in several printmaking mediums, but a single
skill underlies them all. “The ability to draw is essential, whether I use a pen, pencil, knife, or other sharp object. Interestingly, I work in opposites. In pen and ink illustrations, I add lines on paper to create images. With wood engravings, linocuts, and scratchboard, I carve out the negative space and leave the positive image. Also, a figure carved on the left will be on the right when printed.”
The Sonoma County Gazette ‘s March Gardener’s Guide cover is a scratchboard rendition. Rik scanned the carved image into the computer and added color digitally. “I don’t title commissioned work, but this image is composed of California natives. That could be the title.”
Asked how he xes a mistake, given the complexity of carving various mediums, Rik’s face crinkles into a smile.
“It’s never a mistake...it’s a re-design opportunity.”
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To follow in Rik’s steps, catch his workshops in his studio, at Sebastopol Center for the Arts, and at the Center for the Book in San Francisco where in April he will teach a class on multi-color linocut processes. View his work at Laguna de Santa Rosa Environmental Center until early May, continuously at Graton Gallery in Graton, and at his studio outside Sebastopol during Art Trails and by appointment.
“Etchings use a copper or zinc plate coated with a resist layer that
I draw through with an etching needle to expose the metal. The plate goes into an acid bath that eats into the metal, producing the image.
Rik enjoys the challenge of commissions. Asked if one had ever gone wrong, he grins, “I’ve been fired. Trying to produce work matching someone else’s vision ensures there are differences to iron out. All in all, it’s been a positive experience.” Currently Rik is doing illustrations for a book and designing several wine labels.
“Scratchboard, “the poor man’s wood engraving look,” is economical—a black- ink surface baked onto a white clay layer on a backing. I scratch away the ink with sharp tools. The black and white incised board is itself the final work, although it can be photographed or scanned to make prints.”
specialized tool, score the metal surface from 54 angles, giving the ink hundreds of minuscule burrs to pool around and allowing a variety of shadings and texture—no acid involved.”
Asked if he is tempted to join the digital age by drawing in the computer, Rik shoots
out a quick dart of a look. “Why would I do that?” he asks, incredulous. “I like the hands-on part, and there has been a resurgence in appreciation for the master arts of printmaking.”
Website: www.rikolson.com.