I've been in the print shop a lot this week, which is such joy after a long layoff. I'm working to get back into more serious landscapes, but the first one I carved lately was this fun one. My friend Chrissie uses the phrase “On the struggle bus,” and it always makes me smile even when the road is rough. I decided more people might like to have that in their mental vocabulary as well. I conceived of it in three colors. It's two blocks (yellow and black) printed separately with a small red stamp for the stop sign. I added in the red lights with just a brush. Then I wondered if I like the white of the paper highlighing those spaces better than I like the darker red in those holes.

But while I was proofing I pulled just a black and white image, and I liked that too. I've tried it with the red sign and with and without red lights. I've got one drying that has a black stop sign instead of red. I figure there are no real wrong answers here, and people may like different versions, so this one will be a varied edition, which means there will be a total set number of prints, but the prints won't be identical. I also use that method when I'm trying different colors of paper for the same print or different shades of color. Really this is just for fun, so coming up with one identical edition didn't seem to be the main priority.