Vesuvio part 4

Had a plan to meet with my deer print patron this morning around 11:00, but I always like to get places plenty early, so I was there a little past 10.  No one else in the Studio, so music time.  Today I went with one from my library- T-Bone Blues by T-Bone Walker.  Walker was one of the great guitar players of his era, deep in the Texas tradition (I don't know the words to describe it, but his style was definitely Texas, and he sounds nothing like but exactly like Lightnin' Hopkins, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and so many others who learned guitar in that state) but became famous after he moved to Southern California.  In the 1950's, Atlantic Records brought him in to cut a bunch of sides (all records were 78 rpm singles in that era) and in the 70's the label put 15 of these songs on one LP.  A favorite in my early radio days, and a favorite again when issued on CD in the late 80's.  Remarkably clear for recordings from that long ago, one of those albums that should be in everyone's collection.  Molly wasn't there, but she had been- there was a large board on one of the tables with a pencil line drawing, what appeared to be a large jetty type structure with a weather station in the middle of it. Small figures were walking all over it- alone, in pairs, adult with child, adult walking a dog, etc.  Everything is to scale, with the figures less than an inch high.  The sky (most of the block) is completely empty right now, so I'm curious as to what she has planned for that area.

One part of getting there early was to finish labeling all the prints.  I had done the numbers already, but now I added titles, signatures, and the studio chop mark, a stamp that indicates where the print was produced.  I have a custom made Arrabbiata stamp, but I discovered my ink pad was dry.  Do they even still make ink pads?  I'll look later, and for today I just rolled out some suitable ink, used some of my old canned screen printing ink- comes is bold colors and is loaded with drier so it dried very quickly.

With that settled, I could concentrate on my visitor.  I knew that she knew where the building was, but finding my Studio is another matter.  Over the years I've seen a lot of people wandering around the basement lost.  So at 11:00 I was upstairs by the front door and saw her just outside.  Invited her in, and down the stairs to where my space is.  Said it reminded her of college- where they were always working down in a basement.  She paid me in cash, and since the threatened rain hadn't shown up, I just carefully rolled it up to take home. She plans to get it framed very soon.  Seemed very impressed with both the print and the block that I made to generate the print.  She is a photographer, and mentioned the difficulty that can come with negatives getting reversed.  For me, that mirror effect if just an every day part of the process- can even be to our advantage sometimes.

Did want to get a little more done on my new Vesuvio block.  There's a hanging plant in the far corner, indistinct on my printed copy, so I opted to turn in into a philodendron.  I had one for many years in various places I had lived, and used it as a drawing subject regularly in drawing classes, then I moved to my current apartment and it died.  Replaced it, and that one died, too.  The apartment just kills plants I guess.  Luckily I have several good examples of student drawings of it, so I used those at a starting point for this new one.  I had no memories of the floor at Vesuvio, so I looked at my printout of my photo of the interior and is was still hard to tell.  It appeared to be a checkerboard type pattern, but not with single tiles, more like large squares made from several tiles each.  Not much difference in value in that checkerboard.  Put in some basic lines for now and I'll deal with it later.  Also added to the cut off arm on the standing figure on the far right, but I don't like the results, so I'll probably erase it and try something else next time.