Ken Dixon

San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts Catalog

Accession no: 2004.5.3 Type of work: Gum Print
Permanent Collection

Artist/creator: Ken Dixon
Artist biography: Received a BA degree in 1965 from Drury College. Did post-graduate work at Southwest MissouriState in 1965-66 and received a MFA from the University of Arkansas in 1968. This piece is part of aportfolio of work for which he was the recipient of a Mid America Arts Alliance Award in 1986presented by the National Endowment for the Arts. His work is included in many public collections,including the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth, the Museum of Modem Art in Miami, the Nelson-Adkins Museum in Kansas City, the Old Jail Art Center in Albany, Citicorp and Southwestern Bell.He lives in Lubbock Texas where he is Professor of Art at Texas Tech University

Title of work: Dry Land Sailor
Date of item: 1984
Signed: 3-panel piece. Panel #1 is signed in pencil on the lower right corner, “K.R. Dixon ‘84” and the title “Dry Land Sailor” is written in pencil on lower left hand corner. On the reverse is “Panel #1.” Panel 2 is signed on the back in pencil, “K.R. Dixon, Dry Land Sailor, Panel #2,” and panel 3 is signed on the back in pencil, “K.R. Dixon, Dry Land Sailor, Panel #3.”

Dimensions: 56” x 114” (3 panels each 56” x 38”); (142.24 x 289.56; 142.24 x 96.52 cm)
Description: Three separate panels of paper. In the middle of each panel is a smaller sized photographic image. Thebackground of each piece is handwritten story which can only comprehended when all three piecesare laid out in order.
Material: 212 lb. d’arches watercolor paper backed with fabric
Medium: gum print and mixed media
Country of origin: U.S.

Artist’s statement about work: These works are begun with a process, which usesammonium dichromate and gum arabic to create aphotosensitive emulsion. Transparent watercolor isadded to this emulsion to create the initial color of theprint. (In the case of these works, it is generally paynesgray, dove gray or indigo.) After the emulsion has been painted onto the entire surface of the paperand dried, an image can be printed in the emulsion using a slide projector and a 35 mm slide blackand white negative inserted in a slide mount. After the dried emulsion has been exposed to an imagewith the slide projector, the paper is washed in a spray bath. Areas, which have been exposed to light,remain on the paper and areas, which have been blocked by the slide negative, fall off. After theimage has been developed in the water bath it is dried. Then colored pencil and liquid watercolor areadded for further color effects. My stories are added last using a wax resist process. It begins with thescript written in wax crayon. Watercolor is then blown onto the surface with a mouth atomizer. Afterthe color mixture on surface has been fully developed, the wax is scraped off the paper surface and ahot iron and a paper towel are used to remove any remaining wax. All images, which appear in the works, were photographed with a 35 mm camera using black and white film. The negatives were developed specifically for this gum process through removing many of the gray values and pushing the high contrast qualities of the image.

Condition: Good, from Condition Report, dated 7/21/04
Conservation future: None required, from Acceptance Authorization dated 7/22/04

GIFT
Provenance: Donated to SAMFA by the artist Ken Dixon, May 27, 2004.
Donor information: Ken Dixon
History of object: Donated to SAMFA in May 2004. Accepted by SAMFA, July 22, 2004

Exhibitions: Lubbock Art Center, Lubbock, TX, One Person Exhibition, 1984 San Antonio Art Institute, San Antonio, TX, One Person Exhibition, 1986
Restrictions: None

Cataloger name: Karen Zimmerly
Date: August 4, 2005
Sources used:Museum file