This stencil mural was spray painted onto the bulkhead of the Ocean Giant’s Engine Room. Photos record the process and final result. The image is approximately 2 1/2′ by 3′. The ship tends to make a circuit between the arctic and Antarctic, and I was aboard during the 2023 trip to McMurdo station in Antarctica. I also used the stencil to make poster-sized prints onto navigational charts that had been used aboard the ship.
“Ocean Giant” is a single plate printed on Navigational Charts as well as Wanderings Handmade White Deckle Edge Blank Paper. These charts were used in the navigation of the Ocean Giant, SeaCor’s heavy lift ship. A shop press in the engine room of the ship was used as a printing press.
“St. Christopher” used five plates printed onto navigational charts. These charts were used in navigation of Foss tugboats.
St. Christopher is the patron saint of travelers and sailors. He was a giant who offered to carry a child across a rushing river. When, halfway across, he began to struggle under an unbearable weight, the small child, revealed to be Christ, explained that St. Christopher was holding the weight of the world and responsibility for its safe passage as he crossed the river.
$100 To purchase, contact me via instagram DM @joshbarlas or email joshbarlas@gmail.com
“Still Life Of Anniversary Bouquet” is six plates printed onto BFK Rives Printmaking Paper, White, 300 GSM. It was made using a home made printing press. This was a run of 70 prints and they were given away as a gift to guests who attended our wedding.
“House With Columns” is a cyanotype print of my wife taken on Mare Island, Vallejo, California. It was made on Canson Watercolor paper, Clearprint Drafting Velllum, and Arches Platine Paper, and developed using a lightbox that I made using UV LEDs. I used three paper types in order to learn more about the medium, and used Christina Z. Anderson’s article and book as a guide.
$50 To purchase, contact me via instagram DM @joshbarlas or email joshbarlas@gmail.com
“The Anchor Radius” used three plates printed onto navigational charts. These charts were used in navigation of Foss tugboats. “Anchor Radius” is a term describing how far an anchored vessel can pivot around a fixed point (the fast anchor).
$75 To purchase, contact me via instagram DM @joshbarlas or email joshbarlas@gmail.com
The greeting card design was based on Tarot imagery and the sacred heart. They are printed on any scraps or appropriately sized cardstock, and more are printed as I need them. I include a greeting card of some sort with all prints that I ship.
“The Age Of Exploration” is five plates printed onto Speedball Arnhem 1618 Printmaking Paper using a homemade printing press. It is based on an image of Ernest Shackleton’s ship, The Endurance, which was shipwrecked in Antarctic ice floe.
“Nicholas Assists The Wayward Mariner, And All Those Aboard” is 8 plates printed onto Speedball Arnhem 1618 Printmaking Paper. It was made using a homemade printing press.
“Not Yet A Breach, But An Expansion” is two plates printed onto expired navigational charts. These charts had been used to navigate aboard Foss tugboats. The paper is high quality, untextured, and is not highly absorbent. This is the first print made using the printing press that my father and I made using a vice press to generate pressure. The title is a reference to John Donne’s poem, “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning.”