Odds and Ends

I got to put in a few hours in the Studio this afternoon. Took care of some teaching related stuff- printing a late student woodblock and picking up a collograph I printed for another student on a previous visit. Gave a building tour to an artist who wandered into the Studio, curious about possibly getting a space of her own. I taped down two proofs to color. One was the second proof of the Januarius print. Put down washes of the skin, armrest, and some grays on and around the blood collection bag. I'll even those out and add the background and blood next time.

The other print (seen on the left) is a recently pulled proof of a print I produced a few years ago down at the Print Blitz at U. Texas-Arlington. Nancy Palmeri brought a whole bunch of printmakers to town (including a number of the Outlaws), assorted students from our various programs, art students from the college, and some top Dallas area high school artists, for a week of intense printmaking. It was amazing. We were all pretty much in the studios by 10 am every day, and were often there past midnight, except for some meal breaks and some occasional excursions. One such trip was to the art museums of Fort Worth. On the way there we stopped for some great barbeque, which we ate at some outside tables, where I witnessed the greasiest scruffiest grackle I've ever seen picking through scraps left on vacated tables. Back at the studios that evening I drew and cut a block where I imagined that Texas birds brought spare rib bones back to their chicks in the nest, instead of the traditional worms, etc. The next day I printed a small edition of the black and white print.

The purpose of this new proof was as a possible donation for a Printmaking Council benefit. They're showing small works that will be available to those who buy a ticket to a function coming up in May. Though it was designed as a black and white image, I decided to try coloring it. If the colors look familiar, it's because some are taken from the recent tower print. I think it works pretty well. The one issue is that the official donation deadline passed a few days ago, so I need to find out if they would still want me to send them one. If so, I can get it in the mail in the next few days and there before the show of this work that opens this coming Friday.