The Narwhal part 21

Late morning I headed up to the Studio, but it was a bit of challenge.  Drove directly from Manasquan (where I had been doing some work) but this being a Friday, the roads were all choked with traffic. Took about 45 minutes which is way longer than usual.  I was hoping to find Nichole in her office and get an update on the class enrollments, but she wasn't in, and some assistant said she might be back at 2:30.  No way I would wait that long.  So I continued down to my Studio and got to work.

Most of the black ink on the narwhal block was fairly dry, dry enough at least to move on to the next task- the adding of the wire system.   I retrieved the items I had in the car and set things up.   Today's music was 'Round About Midnight, the 1956 debut album from Miles Davis and his quintet, which included a young and relatively unknown John Coltrane on saxophone. It opens with his take on Round Midnight, originally written and recorded by Thelonious Monk, but Miles' version is considered a jazz classic, worthy of naming the album after.  Part of my Studio library.

I lined up the two cut pieces of wood with the interior side holes facing each other, and ran a piece of hanging wire through the holes.   I glued the wood down, weighted on top with one of my large wallpaper books, a good size and weight to keep everything in place while it dried.  Later I will tighten the wire and adjust the grooves, and being able to keep it off the table, I can ink the edges to cover the visible wood completely with black.  Here and there it was still a bit tacky, so I moved it back to the car to dry for now.

At quarter past 1:00 I was done reloading the car and Nichole was not back.  Had nothing I needed to see her about today, so I went on to my next stop- Belmar.  Again a bit of a challenge.  Most direct route would be straight down Main Ave, but every time I have gone that was this summer I got stuck on the Belmar drawbridge.  All different times, but somehow a boat always showing up just before I was ready to cross.  So today I took route 35, with plans to loop around at the 8th Avenue light, and just as we were about the get the green, a train showed up and blocked my lane.  Eventually I could make my turn.  I had exchanged a series of e-mails with one of the chairs there recently, who was concerned about the classes I was teaching in Ocean Grove. One that I am doing there is drawing, which is one I had offered to Belmar, only to be told that it wasn't possible to arrange one for the summer.  Events proved otherwise and now we are working toward a second round of drawing in August.  Now Belmar wants to set something up, so I stopped by to do so with Diane.  After a brief discussion what we decided was for now to arrange a woodcut class (since at the previous reception we had two people express an interest) and hold off on the painting and drawing for now.  I think we should figure out exactly what we want to do first with those classes.  But we have woodcut on the schedule for October and November, giving us time to get people to sign up.

Later in the afternoon, I got an e-mail from Nichole.  She had heard from a potential new student interested in the drawing class and with questions, which she answered but included me in a copy of the reply.  The guy said he'd sign up, but I never believe these things until I see the registration.  Still, it is promising, and with a few more days to go and people I have spoken to myself, I think we have a good chance of August classes happening.