Making a Living

While I was busy up in Ocean Grove on Saturday, a large package arrived at home for me.  I was too tired to open in that day, so I opened it on Sunday. It was only half the paper, which I kind of expected.  When I ordered the two kinds of paper, I was told that one type had not come in yet, even though the online catalog said it was available.  The person I spoke to said it would arrive and gave me a date, which was the day I was talking to her, so she hoped it would be soon. I opened up my package, not sure what I had, and it turned out to be the Japanese okawara paper.  Since I do have a few sheets of the other print paper ready, and I needed the Japanese paper sooner for a commissioned piece, this as what I needed.  Also, I looked at the okawara, and while the online listing said it was white, it was actually more a natural color that I wanted, not bleached white like I figured it would be.  More good news.

I did check when I arrived and Jeanne (my purchaser) was not in the office, so instead of showing her the paper for approval, I just went ahead and printed a copy of the image she wanted- another proof of the boardwalk after sunset image.  There were no major complications in printing it, but boardwalk prints are arduous tasks, and this one is set at night, so there is a lot of black.  It was all inked, and then there was a lot of re-inking as I tried printing it. But in the end, I got all of it.  I hung it up to dry, and decided to call it a day.  I will go back tomorrow probably, and print one more copy.  The best one will be chosen for the print that will go to a customer willing to pay for it. Next up is seeing if I have enough watercolor to do this piece, and if I don't have the right colors, I may have to order some more.  However, it will take about a week for the ink to properly dry, so I don't have to worry about this right away.

The above image is a file photo of this block being printed the first time around, which was over 10 years ago, but this is pretty much what it looked like today.  I brought my small book of jazz and blues discs, so not as much to pick from, but I still found things to listen to that seemed appropriate to the piece.  I started with Django Reinhart, classified as jazz, active in the early 20th century.  He played a wild guitar, hot jazz style, often accompanied by a violin.  When that ended, I threw in Marc Ribot and the Cubanos Postizos, which I have written about before here back in July, 2020.  When the second disc ended, it was time to go home.  At first I had hoped to pull two proofs today, but I was just too tired.

In the evening I found I had an email from Nichole (also not in the office when I stopped by, though her car was in the lot), regarding the next round of classes.  Specifically she was looking for information on drawing II, and images of color works from the acrylic class.  I had sent her both months ago, but rather than wait for her to find them, it will be easier to just attach the same things to a new email and send it again.