Janet Ballweg
Second Skin, Screenprint, 2020, Image size: 21.5 x 15 inches.
“By using vibrant, playful colors, my work can appear fun and inviting, but I can also achieve that sense of an undertow through the bitmapped image, the concealing/revealing effects, and other color nuances.”
Janet Ballweg is an artist living and working in Bowling Green, Ohio (USA). Her approach to color is relative with an eye toward the nostalgic, and her approach to printmaking is based on construction, deconstruction, and re-construction.
Janet’s work focusing on the domestic landscape is created using screenprinting techniques coupled with digital 3d modeling and 2d imaging, and she also works with polymer plate intaglio methods. Currently Janet is investigating patterning as a metaphor for the domestic space.
How does the printmaking process itself relate to how you work with color?
My approach is layered; each print consists of 15-20+ hand-printed layers. The process involves building and rendering a 3d model in 3D Studio Maxx, constructing the 2D image layers in Photoshop, de-constructing the image to create films that can be exposed to screens, and then re-constructing the image by hand-printing each of those layers.
Working in screenprint forces me to think about color as a layered process because it requires multiple layers in order to create varying values for each color. In doing so, there’s an abstraction of shapes that occurs; fitting those shapes together is akin to putting together a puzzle.
I enjoy the mental gymnastics that occur throughout the process. I start by choosing the main object of the print, create a line drawing and layers of spot colors, and then consider how the overall tone of the 3d-modeled image will fit into that color scheme. The object’s layers and the rendered 3D image come together in Photoshop. However, I don’t hold myself strictly to that color palette when I get into the print studio. I often tweak colors during printing in response to the pigment on paper, since layered ink on paper looks different than RGB color on a computer.
When printing, I always start with the CMYK layers, largely because diffusion dithers tend to be the most finicky to print, due to the tiny dots. I can adjust the spot colors as needed to adapt to the CMYK layer. For the most part, I print with fairly opaque colors, using transparency only as a means to add shadows or to diffuse the CMYK layer.
I choose to use the CMYK process for the concealed image within the print because CMYK printing allows for a more photographic look, which contrasts with the flatness of the graphic object. Of course, the CMYK process is derived from commercial halftone printing, but most often I choose to use a diffusion dither rather than the standard halftone pattern because the graininess resulting from random cyan, magenta, yellow, and black dots building up next to each other alludes to an old photograph or the flickering surface of a mezzotint. Thus, the CMYK layer is not as solid as the flat object that surrounds it.
This lack of visual clarity presents itself as a metaphor for the vagueness of memory; it’s something that can’t be grasped or held onto.
Pressing Matters, Screenprint, 2021, Image size: 20.5 x 15 inches.
“CMYK still fascinates me – the way tiny stippled dots of cyan, magenta, yellow and black optically come together to form something recognizable. Similarly, the act of deconstructing a digital image into black and white films and then reconstructing them as color ink layers is a wonderfully engaging abstraction.”
Clean Sweep, Screenprint, 2021, Image size: 20.5 x 15 inches.
“It’s an attempt to move the viewer from the physical to the emotional realm by evoking a sense of time and place; like an undertow, it changes the direction of the overall image. This mental shift is supported by the use of bitmapped CMYK dots that render the image.”
How does color represent or support the mind space of your work?
My work is about making mental shifts – about looking beneath the surface. Color definitely helps me achieve that effect.
I use heavy black outlines and bold, flat colors to represent everyday objects in a graphic, Pop Art-ish style. I want the simplicity of the color to put these mundane objects in your face in a matter-of-fact way – it’s a bucket, a telephone, an alarm clock, an iron… you know immediately what the object is and how it functions in your life.
While the vibrancy of the colors makes these objects seem somewhat playful, the flatness of the colors is a nod to the monotony of domestic life, i.e., the routine of ironing, sweeping, folding, carrying, etc. I want the viewer to see these objects as the substance of everyday life - of its repetitiveness - but also as a metaphor for larger issues. For example, an iron is just an iron, but it’s also speaks about applying pressure in an attempt to eliminate wrinkles/mistakes. My choice of color supports that metaphor too. Generally I lean toward warm colors that invoke a sense of familiarity and nostalgia.
I want people to linger on these objects – to feel like they know these things yet they exist in the past. Within each of these everyday objects, I conceal a gradated image as a way of contextualizing the object and revealing a personal narrative. This shifts the viewer from a flat, outwardly-focused object to a more photographic representation of an intimate moment, typically an image set within a kitchen space.
It’s an attempt to move the viewer from the physical to the emotional realm by evoking a sense of time and place; like an undertow, it changes the direction of the overall image. This mental shift is supported by the use of bitmapped CMYK dots that render the image. The bitmapped image looks soft and grainy compared to the flat, spot colors of the object, effectively creating an interior space within an exterior space.
What would your work be without color?
I have successfully worked in black and white, but the images always looked like film noire; the contrast and sense of drama created a dark, heavy mood that was hard to deny. Color has allowed me to vary the emotive tone of my images.
By using vibrant, playful colors, my work can appear fun and inviting, but I can also achieve that sense of an undertow through the bitmapped image, the concealing/revealing effects, and other color nuances. I appreciate the complexity that color offers – its ability to reference our world, to connect to memories, to suggest warmth and coolness, to startle or blend in, and to move between being powerful, offensive, serious, playful, soothing, and inviting.
My early prints were almost exclusively in black and white. I learned about color mixing by painting with acrylics, which for me, amounted to drawing shapes and filling them in with fairly flat color. In the mid 90’s I began imaging on the computer and became interested in optical color mixing using translucent layers and CMYK printing, which readily translated to printmaking.
CMYK still fascinates me – the way tiny stippled dots of cyan, magenta, yellow and black optically come together to form something recognizable. Similarly, the act of deconstructing a digital image into black and white films and then reconstructing them as color ink layers is a wonderfully engaging abstraction. For me, it mimics the fragmentation of events (present and past) and my attempts to fit them into some semblance of interconnectedness to make them whole.
Remains to be Seen, Screenprint, 2013, Image size: 18.5 x 15 inches.