Elmore started out having this show in his unheated garage studio, and I froze my butt off out there the first year I knew him, just hanging and helping. The next year we moved it inside to my front room/gallery, and I added cookies and hot cider to the mix as well as showing my work alongside his. Last year I had acquired the 1909 printing press and did a printmaking demonstration as well. I hope to have the press rolling this year as well, though with the Cape May trip (pictures to come soon, once I get ready for the open house) and my calendar launch party at Burke's Books last night, I'm even more down to the wire than usual. At least it's for a better reason than my usual procrastination.

The show at Burke's was great fun. They have a huge bank of barrister bookcases up front, holding their special books, and Cheryl suggested using the glass fronts as shelves for my artwork. I was completely delighted with how the juxtaposition of art with books looked. Bookstores are among my favorite places, along with public parks and Gothic cathedrals, and I was thrilled to have my work in my favorite store.

My favorite bookstore is throwing me a calendar party tomorrow night. They're now in a funky, pedestrian neighborhood that throws a neighborhood night out each month, when stores stay open late, bands play, etc. I understand Santa will be in the gazebo for this one, so hopefully there will be a lot of traffic.

I was delighted they asked me. It's the same store that had used my design for a t-shirt several years ago and paid me in books. They're wonderful.

Along with calendars, I'll have prints and watercolors as well. Come on out if you're in Memphis -- Burke's Books in Cooper-Young from 5:30 to 7:00 tomorrow night.

AND this weekend is Elmore's and my open house -- Saturday and Sunday from 12-5 in Midtown (1780 Autumn Ave.). Stay tuned for more information...

For week two of Advent, I'm delivering two more O Antiphon prints to the churches that subscribe to my weekly bulletin drawings. Usually I do lectionary based pen drawings, but Advent is my favorite season of the church year, and I like to do something special for it. Often I do a special series for Lent and Easter as well. This Advent I'm doing the seven O Antiphons. Above is O Key of David, and below is O Root of Jesse. (Given the Presbyterian nature of the churches I serve, I'm not using the traditional Latin titles. I'd like to give people an easy way into the images.)

I'm having fun playing with the "O" motif and getting it prominently into each image.

These images will be published next year in Call to Worship magazine, published by the PC USA.

My last of four issues of Call to Worship magazine that I'll be illustrating is Advent-themed, and the deadline is a bit into the new year, but near enough that I'm thinking ahead and creating art for this Advent at the same time. I had pondered a print series based on the hymn "How Can I keep from Singing", which I love, but Call to Worship suggested the O Antiphons instead, and they grabbed my imagination. I didn't have time to do both just now, so O Antiphons it is.

Advent snuck up on me this year, what with several trips, my dad's wedding, a good friend making the hospital/nursing home transition, and a few other distractions. I usually like to have time for a print series to marinate a bit in my head. This time I felt under the gun, started carving right away, and as a result have recarved three of the original four.

Here's a snapshot of the first batch.

The first one is O Wisdom, or Sophia in the Latin. She is the female personification of God in the Old Testament, and I love that image of God. She was neutered into the non-gendered Holy Spirit when the Bible moved into Greek, and I'm happy for the chance to reach back into the Hebrew tradition and show the female side of God.

Below is O Adonai, one of the names for God.

I was happy with my original image for it, but I recarved the other two prints, as well as one more not shown here. Fortunately these are small, just 4" square, but I'm going to try to think through the final three more clearly and not be as rushed. I had to get images to my churches for their bulletins, though, and sometimes time gets short.

I'm printing invitations to our home show today. I've got a 1909 Chandler and Price letterpress that I am the current caretaker for, and I feel so privileged to have it in my home. I mostly carve blocks for it and do note cards, but occasionally I have an invitation I'd like to print, and (thanks to a letterpress fairy godmother here in town who's traded me type for paintings), I have type I can set to create my own postcard. It's a satisfying process to do that from start to finish.

Today several people have dropped by to pick up calendars or prints and have gotten to see the press in action. I realize this isn't something most people are able to see in their everyday lives, and one friend too far away to drop by requested a video. So here it is. It's the first time I've used this feature on my small digital camera, so the sound isn't great, but you can see the beauty of the press in orbit.

Here's a scan of the invitation I'm printing. It's fun to try different type and ornaments that Cheryl has given me.

And here's what the first 100 or so looked like, before I caught the mistake.

At least I'm in good company. I learned in my Meeman Center class on Shakespeare with Mike Leslie earlier this fall that when they were printing Shakespeare's First Folio editions, someone would stand by the press and proofread as it was running. If he found a mistake, he'd yell, "Stop the presses!", and they'd fix it, but they wouldn't waste the pages they had already printed. So there are several different versions of the First Folio floating around with various typographical errors.

In my case, the places for the "a" and the "r" letters in a California case are right next to each other, and obviously I just grabbed the wrong one.

Here's how the letters are laid out in print shops. I still have to use a diagram to go very quickly, but I'm learning. It's a fun trade to learn. I feel connected with centuries' worth of important history as I print with moveable type. My whole church (Presbyterian) sprang out of the printing press and the new ability it offered to spread both vernacular copies of the Bible and theological tracts.

I've been taking orders for calendars around here to celebrate Small Business Saturday. I also went to Sew Memphis today, our wonderfully funky and artistic fabric store, to help celebrate their open house. I went to Burkes Books (which is throwing me a calendar party for Cooper Young Night Out on December 6th), the farmers market, and our locally owned dog food store. A satisfying morning out and about.

Calendars are in stock and ready to go out, so if you'd like to give a small, local gift this year, let me know. I'll be making up several orders to take to the post office Monday, so this is a perfect time.

Here is the array of images in the calendar, all watercolors done on site.

I'm the illustrator for the four editions of this year's Call to Worship magazine put out by the Presbyterian Church. For the upcoming edition, they've asked for four small prints to show the progression of worship -- gathering, word, eucharist, and sending. I'm using my own church Idlewild as a model for the prints -- sketching on Sunday mornings when I'm there and coming home to do the prints. Here they are in progress, and I'll post the finished prints soon.

For the top photo, you can see three progressive proofs, where I carve a little more each time and then print again to se

Come join us if you can. I got my labels up yesterday and am looking forward to the party. All I have to do now is wrap some unframed prints and gather up calendars to have available.

It's been a crazy busy week. My dad got married on Saturday, and my big show for the year went up on Monday. Thanks to an all day framing marathon on Friday, I was able to relax and enjoy all the festivities with the new family and siblings (now we are six!). It's a hilarious, uproarious new family, and I couldn't be more delighted.

Monday, Elizabeth Alley and I showed up to hang our joint show at ANF architects on Union Avenue in Memphis. It's a beautiful space for art, and we had just the right amount to fill it up without overcrowding the space.

That's Elizabeth's work above, which I love, and it looks gorgeous in this sun-filledroom. My prints (top photo), which are the main body of work I've been preparing for this show, are across from the reception desk, and I'm thrilled with how they look on the wall.

We each have a "welcome painting" in a front alcove, and I also have several paintings and a couple of groupings of watercolor sketches in the hallways.

It was fun to get my prints framed and hung as the group I've been intending them to be.

I finished a couple of new ones at the last minute, and I'm glad I could get them in the show. My only regret is not getting the French Broad print done in time. The family wedding and related events cut into the time a little, but it's also a pretty complicated print, and it may take me a little bit longer to wrangle it where I want it.

Here are the couple of very recently finished ones. If you're in Memphis, I hope you can come out and join us this Friday, November 2nd, for the opening from 5:30-7:30.

Here's the first pull of my Elmwood block. I intend(ed?) to carve leaves into the tree and have green showing through, but right now I'm pondering whether I just like it in black and white. Once I cut away, I can't go back, so I think I'll try painting some leaves on this proof and see what I think. There's a second Elmwood image that I think would be good in just black and white, so maybe I'll end up with a pair of black and whites. I'll sleep on it while I go dancing this weekend and take a short break.