From MegaFauna blog:
http://blackospreyxmegafauna.blogspot.c ... ronze.html
TO HARROW A NAIF BRONZE
This release (SL03) is nearly five years in the making - a completely absurd admission but hopefully the final product was worth the protracted wait. The story of the Bronze Naif begins late in the summer of 2012 when Jake from Converge approached me with the idea of making a poster for the band's October 19th engagement in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I readily accepted and in the process of drawing up some initial rough sketches decided to make an art print of the image which eventually became To Harrow a Naif. I must have been feeling at least partially confident with the way the illustration was shaping up as I decided somewhere along the way that I'd like to print a small, deluxe edition on wood panels. My Dad, Bruce, is an incredible woodworker and craftsman of world renown so I enlisted his expertise (and shop : Bruce Horkey's Wood and Parts) to prepare the panels for screenprinting. With his connections we were able to hand-select the parent sheets the panels would be cut from at a lumber yard in Northeast Minneapolis. Once the material was back in Windom it was cut to size, machined, hand sanded and each panel had a key hole hanger routered into the reverse side. Printing transpired after the main (paper) edition of THAN was in the bag and, as I recall, went fairly smoothly. Wes Winship helped set up the press to print on half inch material while Ben Lafond worked his magic and mixed up the inks. I remember we had one crappy set-up panel to use as a test print which still resides in the BRLSQ shop today, tape and all. I brought the panels back down to Windom along with the paper edition and there they sat, cocooned in foam and plastic sheeting for the next four years.
The edition's dormancy can be attributed to a number of factors & "life events" but the crux of the biscuit is both my Dad and myself are jugglers of numerous full plates and it took a few years for the stars to align. Once they did we were able to carve out a couple weekends where we could focus on finishing the prints in earnest. We tested out two types of finish and, after settling on the better of the two, my dad loaded up the gun and sprayed the first of three face coats in the custom paint booth that nests within my folk's hundred year old barn. After the first coat cured we proceeded to block sand each panel to prepare them for the next coat - this serves to knock down any imperfections in the finish/dust that may have entered to lab and generally makes for a more luxurious final surface. This process of spraying/sanding was repeated once more before the final coat was applied and the end result is truly incredible - a satin surface sheen that highlights the figure in the maple wood grain & simply begs to be fondled. Two coats of finishing and sanding were also applied to the reverse of each panel, (which also bears the "Osprey Sunburst" top graphic and catalog number) so as to completely seal the piece from the elements.
After a final curing period the panels were swaddled with archival tissue paper and returned to their holding cell until I had time to tackle the final piece of the puzzle - a screenprinted certificate of authenticity. The initial rough drawings were started last fall (2016) but I didn't have time to finish the illustration until this winter. What was initially planned as a 2-3 color print quickly ballooned into a 6 color monster on dark brown French Paper Co stock. Ben Lafond again handled printing duties in early April of this year and I finished off each COA with a hand-painted edition number, embossed Black Osprey chop and metallic bronze signature.
Written by A.Horkey | April 2017.
To Harrow a Naif Bronze
Edition of 15 pieces. 32" x 19.75" x .5"
3 color screenprint (including a custom mixed metallic) on maple veneer apple plywood panels.
Prepared and finished by Bruce Horkey at Horkey's Wood & Parts, 2012-2016.
Screenprinted by Ben Lafond at BRLSQ, Autumn, 2012
Published via String Lakes Press, Windom, Minnesota - Catalog number: SL03
Certificate of Authenticity
6 color screenprint (including two custom mixed metallic inks) on French Pop Tone Hot Fudge 100#C stock.
16" x 8.75"
Screenprinted by Ben Lafond at BRLSQ, April 2017.