Supermarket Fireworks part 20

Had a strange dream last night (or maybe early this morning) with a lot of art content.  Some of it seemed to involve taking down a show and installing a new one.  No doubt influenced by my recent activities in Belmar, though this place was unfamiliar, as were the people in the dream.  As the first show was coming down, the music playing was vintage Devo, known for some intense and very electronic new wave songs in the early 80's.  I don't own any and don't recall being exposed to any recently so I have no idea why they were in my head.  Then another group started bringing in the next show, all packed in corrugated cardboard boxes.  The people carrying the boxes were all young African-American men (didn't recognize any, but reminded me of many of my college students) and the music they were playing was all 70's Paul McCartney and Wings.  Not a combination one often sees, and while I do have some of this in my collection, I haven't listened to it lately nor have I been exposed to it anywhere.  But where the dream got interesting was while unpacking the boxes.  Don't recall much about the art itself, except that it was all framed.  Turning up occasionally in these boxes were tubes of watercolor paint, and the one that I remember best was something called "charcoal orange". Never seen anything like that for sale anywhere.  Not even sure what it would be.   Perhaps a very cooled down orange, approaching a neutral.  Something that any experienced artist could mix, and not the kind of thing that anyone would produce as a tube color.  Strange things can wander through your head, especially when you are an artist.

My plans for the daylight hours included a Studio visit. I was very close on my current block and want to get that done and get on with the next project.  But before going to the basement, I stopped off at Nichole's office, but she was busy with someone so I figured I see her later.  After that dream it made sense to listen to some McCartney music, but I don't have any of the post Beatles stuff in my Studio library, so I brought some from home.  One thing I have is a 2 disc set called WINGSPAN, which contains a disc of "hits" (the band had many) and a disc of "history" (highly regarded album tracks), 40 songs total.  Not a bad collection, but unfortunately several of the songs are "radio edits."  When record companies send music out to radio stations, they often send records or discs with multiple versions of the same song.  Some of these edits are done for content, with potentially offensive words removed or even replaced.  The one song in the collection that had that issue was a hit, and left intact.  However, the other common radio edit is for time, a shorter version of the song that can be fit into the 3 minute limit favored in the top 40 format, and this set has 4 such songs.  There are 7 or 8 tracks I could have done without to make room for the full versions of those 4.

As for actual art, all I had left on this block was the shopping cart in the lower left corner.  In my original block sketch I had put a few items in the cart, so I redrew them a little more clearly and finished cutting the cart.  Then I took a pencil rubbing using a piece of copy paper, and found a few things that needed more cutting.  The technique doesn't show great detail or accuracy, but it can help you find those mistakes where something was forgotten.  I won't know for sure what I have until I ink the block, and I wasn't ready to do that today.  But I think I am done with the cutting now.

On the way out I stopped to talk to Nichole, now done with whatever inspection was being called for. This drop in Wednesday night thing is being promoted primarily through social media, and interest is building slowly, but it is building.  In fact I was told that there were quite a few commitments already.  Does that mean they already paid?  I was told no, that will be done at the door.  I like it when they pay in advance, and even if they don't show up, I get paid.  (if they do show up, I'm happy to work with them)  Meanwhile Nichole is plugging away, and we are hoping for a good crowd once things start up in a few weeks.

Haven't heard anything yet about the possible class in Belmar. So I'll stop by tomorrow and see what is going on.  I can be ready without much notice.  Just in case, I brought home the spare wood, left it in the car.