Vesuvio part 16

Got e-mail from Nichole last night, an update.  Much of what was there is what we had discussed yesterday.  The locked doors, the cancelled and postponed items, that was the same, and for now we can still get in to do our work, just can't hold events. but I had no plans to any time soon.  Two new things- toilet paper is being rationed in the public restrooms, since it is too hard to get now.  Still mystified by this hoarding of toilet paper- if I had a paper mill, I'd be cranking out the stuff 24 hours a day.  Even without price gouging, there's probably money to be made.  The other thing- there is still a plan to hold green room classes in the summer.  If they want me, I'll be ready.

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm anxious to finish this new piece and glad that so far I have studio access, but fear that could change.  I'm off today, so guess where I went.  The building was pretty empty today, just me and Bobby in the basement, and I could hear the sound of his power grinding and chiseling.  In my space, music of course, discs from my library there.  Started with my home burned Wipers collection, and when that ran out, I put in something that felt related, Daydream Nation by Sonic Youth.  This Sonic Youth album predated videos, but it got a lot of attention in the press and put them on the map, and came out around the same time as the original Wipers albums.  And while both bands were built around extensive loud electric guitars, both seemed interested in making textural atmospheric music.

When I arrived at the Studio my first task was to take a pencil rubbing of the block in its current state, and I had brought a sheet of newsprint for that purpose.  The first thing I found was that I hadn't cut the eyes on the other seated pizza diner in the other corner, so I took care of that in a few seconds. Other than that, I liked what I saw.  There is a nice graphic nature to these pencil rubbings.

With the shadows on the ceiling I decided to go with an optical gray over the whole thing, and with the floor to cut some out and leave some black.  Did that, and the textural nature of the Wipers didn't hurt.

With that done, I decided I had enough time to pull a test proof of the block, the first one.  I had brought print paper for that purpose, and grabbed my printing bag from the car. Much smaller than the large deer print that had been my last print, so a much quicker process.  First proofs never have enough ink in the initial inking, and I considered re-inking as I went, but then I could see that the proof had slipped a little, and once that happens you are done- almost impossible to get it lined up the same again.

So not one I could use as a good proof, but complete enough to see where I was at, and good enough to do some color experiments on.  Needs a few days to dry first, and I'm too busy with school this week to deal with it right away.  Still, brought home all my watercolors as well, in case I do it there.  I prefer to work in the Studio, but if events continue to evolve and we get locked out, I can continue this process at home for a while.