Time to get to work

 

I haven't started any new work in a long time, which is mostly because of the brain surgery and recovery process.  Recovery is still going on, and probably will for quite a while, but I can walk fairly well now with a cane, have permission to drive, have my car as fixed up as it can be at its age, am done with my most time consuming therapy, and have had a few ideas, some of which relate to the events of the past 6 months.  So this seems as good a time as any to get something started.

Nothing on the schedule for today, and rent was due on the studio, so it seemed a good day to start the process.  My parents had a doctor's appointment to keep them busy, but I had no problem getting myself ready.  I'm going to save the details for the future, but I will say now that it will be in the vein of the piece shown above.  A New Year for America was the first of my pieces that combined many small pieces (which may have been separate prints in some earlier series) into one large print.  Since there is one overall message, it works.  This, and a follow up, Employee. were both 36" wide by 24" tall, fairly large by my standards.  I kept them black and white to make the combination easier to put together, and more logical as a composition.  Eventually this was followed by History of Art, which turned the print on its side to make it 36" high by 24" wide, but that was planned for color, and cut as such.  This new piece will use the same idea of combining many stories into one landscape, and the horizontal idea, but go back to black and white, be mostly an interior, and be at a smaller size- planned at 18" x 24".  Still a good sized print and will have a lot to see, but a little easier to print and frame.  I have been doing sketches of items and spaces that are expected to be part of this piece for a few weeks.

Today was a chance to get up to the Studio. First item- leave the rent check for Molly, as I had promised her by email I would.  Second, see if Nichole was in (and with her door open I could) and discuss a few loose ends regarding my summer woodcut class.  I quickly learned that I will be covered by the building's insurance and won't need my own (that's good- will save me a bit of money), and gave her the  official letter she had asked for to give the board.  So far so good.  Except that she informed me that so far no one had signed up the July woodcut class.  She's hoping that promotion of the first session will bring more people to exposure to the second session, and I hope so as well.  But this was what I expected, and why I wan't too upset that I wasn't also given a June session.

On my first trip in I had brought in my saber saw, which had been in the back of my car, in its box, since the last time I used it, which may have been last fall.  But I knew I also needed a yardstick before I did anything else, so I decided to make my next trip outside.  I had one other task outside the building- get a slice of pizza across the street. This meant a walk across our parking lot, down to the corner, across the road, and though the shopping plaza parking lot.  This last part was the most dangerous part, as people like to use the parking lot for racing, so one must take a careful look before stepping forward. But I have known this for many years, so I was fine.   What I feared most was also true- many employees go there on their lunch breaks, and in that 12 o'clock hour the place was packed.  But we all engaged in voluntary social distancing, and we all got served.  Took care walking back across the parking lot and street, so that was again survived.  The slice of pizza served as both a drawing prop for my new piece and today's lunch. 

Then my luck finally failed.  I pulled out my saber saw, found it even still had a blade in it, got one of Molly's plugged in extension cords, and plugged in the saw.  But it didn't start running. Tried the other extension cord, but same result.  Took the saw over and plugged it directly into the wall, but still no action.  Changed the blade, tried again, same result.  This saw just wasn't going to work and I knew of no reason why.  Other than the saw's age- it was used when it was given to me, and I had been using it since I was in Carbondale in the early 90's.  That will have to be dealt with soon.  

By then I had been there a few hours and decided to call it a day.  But I had gotten things done, learned a few things, found some more postcards and a disc I thought was missing, and had driven my car more than I had in a long time, so on the whole, not a bad day.