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It’s been quiet around here because I’ve been working to get good prints for my show at WAMA next year. The first batch of publicity images are due soon, so I’ve been printing a stack of blocks that I had carved, working to get crisp prints. That’s harder than I had hoped because I’ve really challenged myself to do some intricate and interesting blocks, and I’m also working larger (with my new press from last year) than I ever have. All of those factors make it trickier to keep the paper adhered really well to the block. It it moves at all, the image is blurred. Fortunately the Cardinals have been on a historically unprecedented run of good baseball, including several day games to keep me company while I work. It’s always good to have something happy to listen to. I also found a website where the Harry Potter books read by Stephen Fry (the English versions, and I adore Stephen Fry) are streamable.
I also found out that the dates for my show had changed, so I had to rework the exhibition print. I cut out the whole section with the old dates, carved new ones, and managed to plug them in, with a little mailing tape to hold it all together. That was a first for me, and it was nice to have it work. Here are a few sneak peeks into the process. I’ll be able to get really good scans of the finished prints once they dry.
I also found out that the dates for my show had changed, so I had to rework the exhibition print. I cut out the whole section with the old dates, carved new ones, and managed to plug them in, with a little mailing tape to hold it all together. That was a first for me, and it was nice to have it work. Here are a few sneak peeks into the process. I’ll be able to get really good scans of the finished prints once they dry.
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It’s been fun printing this week. I’m playing with colors for my exhibition print. I did one for Dixon too. When life hands you the chance to put your name and a museum’s name in the same place for a period of time, it feels worth making art about. So this week I’m printing a rainbow of options to see what I like best. What I really like best is a Warhol-like mass of them. That feels deeply celebratory to me. And such a thing may live eventually up my stairwell. But for now I’m seeing if I can get one that I’ll really like to use to promote the show. It’s a fun process.
I’m also continuing to do one or two good printing sessions a day but continue to take more time for myself than I have in years past. Yesterday was a perfect day weather-wise — low 80’s with a breeze. I took a long lunch on the screened in porch and finished my book before going back in for a second printing session. Then I took dinner out there too. It’s been good to carve out small scale daily happiness for myself in the midst of larger craziness in the world.
I’m also continuing to do one or two good printing sessions a day but continue to take more time for myself than I have in years past. Yesterday was a perfect day weather-wise — low 80’s with a breeze. I took a long lunch on the screened in porch and finished my book before going back in for a second printing session. Then I took dinner out there too. It’s been good to carve out small scale daily happiness for myself in the midst of larger craziness in the world.
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I’ve done a lot of carving over the last year, and I’ve done some printing too, but I haven’t at all kept up with the volume of blocks. So now is the time. I’m settling into printing at least the first batch of each edition for the WAMA show next year. Nicely I still have some months, so I can do it in stages and keep going on some more creative work as well. Friday, after my Thursday sabbath (see my last post), I printed the first 10 of this Skagit river print. It’s really detailed and delicate, and my regular, somewhat heavy paper was moving too much on the block as the press went across it, so I was getting blurry prints. I ended up choosing a lighter paper that will stick better to the wet ink and not smudge. I got 10 of 30, and that was plenty of work by the time I had puzzled through the earlier issues. Now I know, though, and the next batch will go faster.
Then yesterday I cut a blank block the same size as my show poster, a carved poster print to celebrate the fact of a museum show. I did one for Dixon and am now doing one for Walter Anderson. When you get to put your name and a museum name together, it’s worth doing a print to celebrate. As I did with Dixon, I’m doing a bunch of different color tests. It’s fun to have some rainbow options. So yesterday I cut the background block, figured out the paper size, cut a stack of paper, and then made a diagram to keep the block carefully centered on the paper so I can layer two blocks and not have them weirdly offset. Then I stopped and played with my new dog a while. Today I did a whole series of different colored backgrounds (each one requiring multiple color mixing and blending the colors on the block itself with rollers). They’ll dry for a day or two, and then I’ll print the intricate block with all the lettering on top.
I’m finding myself still in slow motion as I try to get back into my work groove. I think it’s been hard for everyone to stay sharp and focused through this whole pandemic period. So I’m giving myself some grace, taking more time off than usual, but getting one good printing session done each work day. I’ve got time, and that feels like a manageable approach for now, and I’m grateful to be able to do this.
Last year felt very slow as well, but I ended up with a stack of museum prints and also a book I wasn’t expecting to do, so sometimes I’m doing better than I think I am on the productivity front. Anyway, for now printing, plus dog time and some pleasure reading breaks plus extra trips to Dixon during the Thiebaud show (which feeds my work in a roundabout way). Solidarity to everyone doing a little slogging at this point in the world. And gratitude to everyone managing to make a little beauty along the way.
Then yesterday I cut a blank block the same size as my show poster, a carved poster print to celebrate the fact of a museum show. I did one for Dixon and am now doing one for Walter Anderson. When you get to put your name and a museum name together, it’s worth doing a print to celebrate. As I did with Dixon, I’m doing a bunch of different color tests. It’s fun to have some rainbow options. So yesterday I cut the background block, figured out the paper size, cut a stack of paper, and then made a diagram to keep the block carefully centered on the paper so I can layer two blocks and not have them weirdly offset. Then I stopped and played with my new dog a while. Today I did a whole series of different colored backgrounds (each one requiring multiple color mixing and blending the colors on the block itself with rollers). They’ll dry for a day or two, and then I’ll print the intricate block with all the lettering on top.
I’m finding myself still in slow motion as I try to get back into my work groove. I think it’s been hard for everyone to stay sharp and focused through this whole pandemic period. So I’m giving myself some grace, taking more time off than usual, but getting one good printing session done each work day. I’ve got time, and that feels like a manageable approach for now, and I’m grateful to be able to do this.
Last year felt very slow as well, but I ended up with a stack of museum prints and also a book I wasn’t expecting to do, so sometimes I’m doing better than I think I am on the productivity front. Anyway, for now printing, plus dog time and some pleasure reading breaks plus extra trips to Dixon during the Thiebaud show (which feeds my work in a roundabout way). Solidarity to everyone doing a little slogging at this point in the world. And gratitude to everyone managing to make a little beauty along the way.
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It’s been quiet around here as I made my way home across the country (2600 miles solo in the camper van), tried to wade through three and a half months’ worth of mail and necessaries, and FOUND A NEW DOG. This is Gideon. He’s an 8 month old Golden retriever , 62 pounds (so far — I’m hoping for a decent bit bigger), and one congenital heart condition discouraging folks from adopting him. He’s a sunny, sweet, attentive, smart love, though, and we’ll see what the vets say. We’re going to have us a good time for whatever time we get, though. That unscarred, love-the-world disposition can be hard to find in rescue dogs, who have tended to live through some tough stuff, and I just couldn’t leave him in a kennel. I still miss Mr. Darcy, but Gideon is going to be a quality companion too.
He started work yesterday as my studio dog and did great. He laid around in the floor and kept me company while I printed. I found out how out of practice I am though! I printed 40 small Walter Andersons, from a block I carved over the summer, but I completely forgot to reverse the direction on the color roll. I was watching the prints closely for crispness, but I totally didn’t notice that the colors were backwards from what I wanted. Now I’m not sure what to do with this batch. But at least I got my printmaking area cleaned up and going again. I’ll get locked in here soon I’m sure. You can see the proof in the top left, with the color the way I want it, and the others that just don’t match. (Feels like a Sesame Street exercise, doesn’t it?) Sigh.
He started work yesterday as my studio dog and did great. He laid around in the floor and kept me company while I printed. I found out how out of practice I am though! I printed 40 small Walter Andersons, from a block I carved over the summer, but I completely forgot to reverse the direction on the color roll. I was watching the prints closely for crispness, but I totally didn’t notice that the colors were backwards from what I wanted. Now I’m not sure what to do with this batch. But at least I got my printmaking area cleaned up and going again. I’ll get locked in here soon I’m sure. You can see the proof in the top left, with the color the way I want it, and the others that just don’t match. (Feels like a Sesame Street exercise, doesn’t it?) Sigh.
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I finally got a proof done of this after a lot of letter carving, which goes slowly. I’ll definitely be refining it more, but it’s always fun to see the first proof after a one time of planning. I cut away a bit more than I wish I had on the tree, but that’s par for the course on printmaking. I’m going to downsize the birds some as well. Overall I’m please with the feel of it, and when I get it where I want it, it will be in color, but black is easy for proofing. I’ll do a solid light colored background and darker colors for this block on top. I’ll likely try several different color options before picking my favorite. That’s the number one advantage of doing more than one block instead of printing light and then cutting away more as you go. It’s easier to keep more intricate prints lined up that way, and it’s a bit less work, but you can’t go back and try a different color or adjust a previous layer since it’s all cut away already. I’ve done a couple of reduction prints but mostly prefer to do multiple blocks for the flexibility.
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I’ve got a stack of blocks for various prints carved, but not as many finished prints. I don’t print an entire edition at once, unless it’s an easy one on my treadle press, but I want to get a stack of each of the new ones ready as I go along instead of having to do it all this fall ahead of the WAMA exhibit.
Today was fiddly printing. I’d put down the simple blue backgrounds yesterday, but today’s was three colors and four rollers. First I rolled the trees in black with a small roller. Then I wiped underneath them with a paper towel to keep the water from being too dark. Then I’d add gray in the water. Then pink in the clouds and a bit more loosely in the water. Finally I’d do the upper clouds in gray with a larger roller. I love the effect of rolling multiple colors (the technical term is a rainbow roll, which is way better than lots of technical terms out there), but it takes patience and time. I only got seven of this one done today, and this one is time consuming enough I’ll probably keep it at a smaller edition than most of my prints. I’m really pleased with how it came out though, and I’m happy to have a couple of local to Ocean Springs scenes ready for my show there. Memphis is home, and the Old Forest is my Horn Island, but it’s also nice to nod to Anderson’s landscape in a show at his museum.
Today was fiddly printing. I’d put down the simple blue backgrounds yesterday, but today’s was three colors and four rollers. First I rolled the trees in black with a small roller. Then I wiped underneath them with a paper towel to keep the water from being too dark. Then I’d add gray in the water. Then pink in the clouds and a bit more loosely in the water. Finally I’d do the upper clouds in gray with a larger roller. I love the effect of rolling multiple colors (the technical term is a rainbow roll, which is way better than lots of technical terms out there), but it takes patience and time. I only got seven of this one done today, and this one is time consuming enough I’ll probably keep it at a smaller edition than most of my prints. I’m really pleased with how it came out though, and I’m happy to have a couple of local to Ocean Springs scenes ready for my show there. Memphis is home, and the Old Forest is my Horn Island, but it’s also nice to nod to Anderson’s landscape in a show at his museum.
I keep a book of my prints with notes on each print, how many I’ve editioned already, and color samples for when I print the next batch. It really helps me to have all that information in one place. I’m not a super organized person, but the print book is key.
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I’ve been mostly working on commissions this week, but I’ve been carving a little and pulling an occasional proof of this one as I go along. This morning I used one of the proofs to watercolor on so I could see if I want to do a second block with a blue background. I like them both ways and am leaning toward doing sets of prints each way at the moment, but I’ll look at them a few more days before knowing for sure.
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I've been working on a new print of Mr. Darcy this week from one of the farm photos I took. I've done a painting and several sketches of him in water before, and the subject continues to draw me. This one needs a little thinning and refining since it is the very first proof I've pulled, but I'm happy with where it's going.
I've also been playing around with watercolor, working on images from our farm trips this spring. I've been thinking of the series in my head as "Daffodil Season" and wondering about a graphic essay. I'm so grateful to have art as a way to work through grief and also memorialize times that are dear to me. Here is the watercolor version of that same scene.
I've also been playing around with watercolor, working on images from our farm trips this spring. I've been thinking of the series in my head as "Daffodil Season" and wondering about a graphic essay. I'm so grateful to have art as a way to work through grief and also memorialize times that are dear to me. Here is the watercolor version of that same scene.
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I’ve been slowly working on proofs of this piece, since you have to leave the first layer to dry overnight before adding the second one. It’s from a sketch I did a bit over a year ago in Ocean Springs, the trip where I got on their calendar for an exhibition. I want to have a number of my own home places in the show, since that’s what Anderson did, but I always love sketching down there and would like to have a few pieces where I interpret the landscape his work sprang from in my own voice. I hung out on the pier sketching a good bit, bundled up against the wind since it was January, but land-locked folks need to take advantage of the coastline when they manage to get there. I’d actually hoped to be able to be down there a good bit more while preparing for the show, but none of us saw COVID coming, so I’m still working on early 2020 sketches.
You can see the top print set against the first one I did, which was too dark, and the second one, which was too light. It’s been a bit of a Goldilocks situation working my way toward “just right.” I want to try this level of blue with just gray clouds. I’m of a divided mind about the pink. It’s fun to be able to try different versions before printing the final edition. I’m always impressed with the printmakers who do reduction prints, which means they lay down one color (usually the lightest), carve away more of the block, lay down the next one, keep carving, and repeat. I’d have had the blue layer too dark, and the whole print would have been wrong. I just can’t imagine it before seeing it on paper, so I tend to do a separate block for each color, and that gives me a lot of options. And sometimes it’s fun to play later with a completely different color scheme.
You can see the top print set against the first one I did, which was too dark, and the second one, which was too light. It’s been a bit of a Goldilocks situation working my way toward “just right.” I want to try this level of blue with just gray clouds. I’m of a divided mind about the pink. It’s fun to be able to try different versions before printing the final edition. I’m always impressed with the printmakers who do reduction prints, which means they lay down one color (usually the lightest), carve away more of the block, lay down the next one, keep carving, and repeat. I’d have had the blue layer too dark, and the whole print would have been wrong. I just can’t imagine it before seeing it on paper, so I tend to do a separate block for each color, and that gives me a lot of options. And sometimes it’s fun to play later with a completely different color scheme.
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Hospice for Mr. Darcy continues with almost daily farm visits. It's his favorite place, and he enjoys the ride with the windows down, sniffing out the window, as well as the actual walking time. It's also the best place for me to be able to evaluate how he's feeling. Plus I'm doing a good bit of sketching while we're there and getting some good print ideas going. It's definitely some time away from my main work, but I'm grateful to be able to be this flexible and really enjoy this last time with my boy and main muse.
