Busy Day

Picked up a slice of pizza on my way to the Studio, arriving in the early afternoon.  Ate in my Studio, then got to work.  First job was to grade some student work, projects arriving late at our last meeting, but with the semester about to end, some students are finally dealing with things they should have dealt with weeks ago.  That didn't take long, then got on to my Holiday card.  I chose the idea last week, and some test sketches looked promising, so now came the important step of getting the wood. Luckily I have a bunch of scraps left from classes and other projects.

The smaller piece above is the wood that will be for the card.  Actually two cards- as next year I just rotate it and the part that wasn't cut will be the new design and the part cut this year and uninked will line up with the new card's back.  Then I decided to go ahead and start the pencil drawing on the block. I had brought with me the art book that has the starting design, and I keep a small mirror in my drawer there to assist with the backwards rendering required in woodcut. Not perfectly complete, but I roughed in the basic design of the fine art, at least some of which will be covered by my Christmas additions anyway.  I can do some of that at home, but for today I was taking advantage of my large work table, and the music was enjoyable.  (no Molly today)  Started with a home burned disc- taped from an LP found by fellow grad Dave Kirkland, the debut album from Austin legends the Hickoids (then called "We're In It For The Corn", but I later acquired an official reissue on CD with bonus tracks called "Corn Demon")  paired with another Texas cow-punk classic I got from Dave,  Jon Wayne's Texas Funeral.  The latter had become an underground classic, even as no one was quite sure  what it was.  Suggestions included a well known rock and roller working under an assumed name, a crazy Texan (almost every song has the word Texas in the title), a country band that hijacked a recording studio and recorded an album as they continued to get drunk.  In any case it often sounded like a guy channeling Walter Brennan as he spewed lyrics that were occasionally sexist and racist meant to be stereotypical of Texas, but more recently it was revealed to be the work of a music producer and his friends, a parody.  Entertaining in its ridiculousness, and the two albums go well together. Kept the theme going with some songs from the Reverend Horton Heat (more psychobilly than cow-punk), then packed up and headed home. As is my custom, what I drew on that block won't be shown here.  Some people will see the results when they get it in the mail, others when I post it to this blog on Christmas Day.

I was also hoping to talk to Nichole about the upcoming annual Holiday Volunteer Luncheon, but she wasn't around, so I'll send her an e-mail tomorrow.