Supermarket Panic part 15

 

Last week I stopped by the JSAC to find out some thing at the office, and was asked if I had talked to Molly recently.  No, not since her last surprise appearance there, picking up stuff for her show/sale.  This was because Molly had so far not renewed her lease on the Studio, and since I sublet from her, this can have an effect on what happens to me.  I was told that they would work on trying to get ahold of her.  So far Molly was making excuses as to why she didn't want to pay the increase.  

For the moment I have a studio, so this may be the time to take advantage of it and do some printing. I'm on hold for now with the Robert Johnson project, but I do have one other unprinted cut block in my possession, my last supermarket print.  This one has been referred to Supermarket Panic so far, as it is about that period of time in which supermarkets were open, but shelves were not always well stocked.  Paper products couldn't be found anywhere, a lot of soaps were missing, self serve bins were empty, and canned and boxed goods were missing randomly, as consumers decided to suddenly buy some of anything and items were not being restocked.  Masks were required, plexiglass shields were surrounding all the cashiers, sometimes aisles were being designated as one way, so shoppers could only go one way up or down the aisle.  Employees were stationed at the entrances to make sure that all shoppers had masks, and sometimes to enforce maximum numbers of shoppers.  Such was life back in 2020 when the pandemic was raging, colleges were closing to faculty and students, galleries were closing in general, and people were not sure where their next meal was coming from.  As printers, Molly and I were declared essential workers by our building, and so as long as I had keys, I could get into the building and use my space.  Because I had produced a series of black and white woodcuts about weird things I had seen in supermarkets, and even had a show up in Ocean Grove at the time exhibiting works from that series, it made sense to produce a new print about the strange things I was seeing at that point in time.  News programs showed fights over canned foods in some places.  Saw nothing like that myself, but there was a lot of odd behavior going on, both with customers and employees. 

So I came up with a story, drew the design, and cut the block.  Mostly used student tools, but they do work. I finished the block in September of 2020, in the same month that my university officially took away my scheduled classes, saying that I had not scored high enough on the computer tests to teach one of their new online classes, all from a new learning management system, which wouldn't have allowed me to do most of the projects I had always done in that class.  (this learning management system has already been replaced, as I predicted, by another one that I experienced at another school, and I know that one doesn't work either, but that's not my problem these days) A look back at this blog shows I was also involved in an effort to make puzzles at that time, and looking for other teaching jobs, so perhaps it's no surprise that I put off printing the block.  Nowhere to show the print at that point anyway- all the galleries I had known over the past few decades were closed by fear of disease.  Not long after that I had an MRI, the brain tumor was discovered, and then I had other things to worry about.  Still recovering from that, and even today I was dealing with repercussions from that diagnosis and treatment.  

Meanwhile, the cut block sat in my bedroom here, untouched.  I decided that today I had nothing better to do, and it was about time that I took a proof of it and see what I had.  Plus an excuse to get out of the house and up to the Studio, and see what was going on.  I had paper and ink ready to go.

Left early, got up there in the morning, and dropped off the printing go bag and my block in my space.  Managed to grab a few paper towels from the ladies room there in the basement (only one in the men's room), glad that I looked when I did.  Then to the office.  Only Kaitlyn there today, but she is part of this lease thing now (a job bequeathed on her we learned in a recent email) so I asked her.  Had not yet heard anything from Molly, who had said she wanted to talk to me about the increase, but I haven't heard from her yet either.   Kaitlyn wants to get something settled by the end of the month, so maybe this will be resolved soon.  Meanwhile, while I still had a place to print, I decided to go ahead and print my block.  I told Kaitlyn about the paper towel issue (she wasn't even aware there were bathrooms in the basement), then got on with my planned work.

Ink and materials were cold from being in my car, but not frozen, so I was able to remove some ink from the can and loosen it up.   I had pieces of Lightweight, torn off the paper I used for the Robert Johnson prints, too small for another one of those, but big enough for a supermarket print, especially a first proof like this.  As with all first proofs, not a great proof of this image, but good enough for my purposes today.  Here is the result:

The image looks a little barren, but that kind of fits the era.  Many store shelves were barren, especially in the paper goods, where we just didn't have any.  Never did figure out why there was such a demand for paper towels and toilet paper, and why the factories that make these things from American products couldn't get them to stores for months.  This piece was partly inspired by an old Police song, but I never had that on disc, so I certainly don't now.  However, there was one disc in my pop/rock book not written about here, so I started with that one today.  This started when I emailed by friend Doug to ask him about a song, one that he had sent me on tape years ago.  Couldn't remember the name of the band or the song, except that it was something about a "Fisherman" and had a couplet something like, "Got a radio that plays blues, soul, and funk.  It only gets one station, but it's the one I want." which actually sums up a lot of what was going on in the world referred to by today's print, and was a line I used now and then, even if I couldn't remember what song I had heard it in.  At first Doug couldn't place it either, but then one night as he lay in bed, it came to him, making him very excited that he could still dig up these things when he needed to, which meant he had a lot of music stored in his brain, as long as something could remind him of it.  The next day he sent me the band name- Marah- and the song, which was called,  "Catfisherman" which meant that I could find it on YouTube.  And since he had the original album, he later burned me a copy of that and sent it to me, another album for me to enjoy in my new collection at home.   I had that album, Kids in Philly with me today, so I could listen to it as I worked.  In general it reminds me of the Bottle Rockets, or early Bruce Springsteen, good bar band music.  Lyrics about local pleasures, in the case of the fishing song- using chicken livers as bait, and the smell of old earthworms in his tackle box, and music he likes.  When that ended, I went with something that I heard on the radio on the way there- a song by Matthew Sweet, and I had a compilation of my favorite songs from that artist, burned long ago from albums I had on my shelf.  You can read about that disc on this blog back in June of 2020.  Heard songs from two other artists I had with me today, but this was what I chose to listen to as I cleaned up.

Back in the office, Kaitlyn and I had agreed to keep each other informed if we heard anything from Molly, but lastI checked, Molly hadn't contacted me yet.  If I don't hear from her soon, I may have to try calling her, if for no other reason, than to know how much the next check should be for.   I don't mind paying a share of a rent increase, but I have to know what it is.  The office said they don't think they can even accept rent from Molly without a lease, so this needs to be resolved soon.  February is less than two weeks away.