Woodcut Class Rises Again

My fall class for the Belmar Arts Council has had to take a few weeks off.  The planned third meeting was postponed in advance of Sandy's expected arrival, and by the scheduled day for the fourth meeting, the Boatworks had been taken over by the town to use as a disaster relief headquarters.  (and this storm was definitely a disaster for Belmar)  The decision was made to suspend all BAC functions until such time as we can move back into the building, but that is likely not until next year.  I can't do anything about most of what has been displaced, but I do have the means to host my class in a place that is designed for the purpose and just a few miles up the road from where we were.  The BAC and the class participants were all open to the idea, so once things in the area got a little more settled, I set it up.  Today was the first of the two remaining sessions.

At exactly 10:00 am, no one had yet arrived, but the first person showed up about 5 minutes later, and two others appeared in the room before long.  (the fourth never showed)  After that, it was pretty much like the class would have been if we had it in Belmar.  The group did express how much they liked working in the Studio, which thanks to our new windows, is much brighter than the Boatworks.

We don't have as many tables as the Boatworks does, but mine are larger and a lot sturdier than the plastic folding tables in Belmar.  Still, I had to put my small wooden kids table (a recent arrival here, but in the family as long as I can remember) to use as the paper table.

A busy group of printmakers there today.  Jill brought in three previously cut and printed blocks, with the goal of getting better proofs than she had previously, and she was happy with the results.  Mary brought in two brand new blocks (she found cutting wood blocks a good way to pass the time during her days without power) and took state proofs of each.  Joan did some additional cutting to a block she had started last time, and brought in an old block started many years ago, and pulled proofs of both.  As each proof was pulled, we put them up on the tack board so we could all get a good look.

One more session to go and that will be the end of woodcut classes for the year.  Sometime in 2013, when things get back to normal, I'll put it back on the schedule and see what happens.