Contemporary American Batik

In the piece to the left, "This Week's Winners
and Losers", the batik process is done on newspaper. The process is as follows: I start by first neutralizing the acids in the paper to prevent any yellowing or cracking in the future. I then sketch the piece as I would  a traditional batik. From there, I wax the backfield of the piece (the area now covered by yellow dots), thus segregating workable areas (the arrows). Once done, I do a direct application of dye to the unwaxed areas (the arrows), working light to dark. Once all the dye work is done, I wax the entire piece, and follow by ironing the wax into the piece. Some measure of wax remains in the piece, and causes the paper to become transparent, revealing the print from the reverse side. I then painted acrylics on the surface (the yellow dots), and finish with a uv coating. The piece was then mounted using conservation quality materials, including uv glass.
This piece happens to be done on the stock section, while others have been on topics ranging from war and jobs to entertainment and religion. Much of my imagery is dictated by the subject matter of the paper on which I'm working. In my mind, if it's fit to be printed, it's fit to be waxed, dyed and painted. Since 9/11, we've been immersed in news. 24 hour news stations, crawlers on the bottom of TV screens, the internet.... it's everywhere. I believe it is now time to immerse the news in hot wax, then obscure some aspects of it, and accentuate other aspects at my whim. I feel almost like a reporter. But I assure you, I'll be fair and balanced.