198 Days to go

198 days to go

Art buddies, J and S, visited the studio yesterday at lunch time. Of course there was nothing concrete to see in the painting area because I had whited out all previous works. We admired the stretched canvases and stretchers. I showed them the sketch wall and also some of the photoshopped reference sketches so they could see what was going to happen. J caught and understood the anxiety I feel over thinking I have to bridge some older works with the new. He didn’t think it was much of a problem and the continuity is there. Because of his job he also understands the curator/exhibit design/artist mode that I am encountering.

J had some good insights and a suggestion on how to get focused. Make a to-do list at the end of the day and check it again when I enter the studio the next time. This is something I have done in an all-encompassing way but not on a day-to-day level. This way you can see some progress being made and keep on track as to what needs to be done.

While I had two more pairs of arms around I had the guys help me lift the big green coffin up onto some saw horses. I’ve been afraid I’m going to run something into that thing and ruin the finish. Propping it up also gives me better access to it for printing.

After work I watched the boys climb trees, drew dragons and knights on the sidewalk with the M, had dinner, and headed off to work in the studio. One of my neices is getting married soon. Her husband to be asked for a print of the marriage scene from one of the coffin sides as a gift. That was enough incentive to attempt to print one of the coffin sides. I mapped out a cropped composition from the 18 x 54” side. I used some paper guides to block out any over rolling and inked up a 18 x 14” portion of the block. It took quite a while to ink up the area with my 6 inch roller. Once the surface looked properly inked I lined up the paper and tacked it down with some painter’s tape so it wouldn’t slip off the vertical surface. I burnished the area with my trusty spoon and got a pretty good impression. I inked up once more and pulled another print for myself.

Once I pulled the paper guides off the block I realized that the inking up of that section was going to leave a distinct area darker than the rest of the block. The only solution was to ink the rest of the side. I thought as long as I was doing that I might as well attempt to pull a print. Now the last time I pulled a print from this block it was a single piece of wood 18 x 54”. It wasn’t attached to other boards, I had S helping lay the paper, and I was able to run it through a press horizontally! This night I was alone, the board was glued to the rest of the coffin sides and was sitting vertically on a pair of saw horses 3 feet off the ground. What the hell? I inked up the block, cut some paper, figured out the registration, rolled up the paper and lined it up as best I could against the block. I held my breath as I lay it down on the ink and started to roll it out. I was concerned if I missed the angle of the paper by a few degrees the image was going to run close to or off the paper at the opposite end of the block. The first one lay pretty good, not centered but pretty close. I burnished and burnished and burnished working left to right. As I got to the opposite end of the block my spoon went over a tiny piece of grit in the ink. The result was a small tear through the paper that had me hopping and cursing the dust gods all around the studio.

I calmed down enough to realize that the print wasn’t a total disaster. I strung it up to dry and sat a while to think out what to do next. By this time it was getting pretty late but I still wanted to get another print after all the trouble the inking up had been. The wood had absorbed enough ink that the block was now an even shade of green. I rolled the whole thing up once more and pulled another print. This time the paper really rolled out skewed but still fell within the image margin. I hung that one up to dry and called it a night.

As I sat writing up my list of things to do next I scanned the side of the coffin and started to see little areas here and there that needed a little more work. I think I’m going to have to carve some more before I get the definitive print from this piece...