Love in Vain and Other Stories

 A very busy day today.  However one thing I discovered early on was that my cell phone was almost completely drained, so I had to deal with that, rather then go out early.  While that charged (takes about 2.5 hours) I sent out a reply email.  The person who is doing the flyer for our upcoming open studio event had a question about Molly- essentially is she out there?    So far Molly had not replied to any of her emails requesting spelling and other verification for the flyer, and wondered if I knew anything.  Join the club, as Molly hadn't replied to me either on the topic.  So I told this person that I knew nothing, but that this was typical for Molly, so don't take it personally.  

I also looked again at the recent email from Tom.  I had written him a few days ago requesting more information regarding his choice for a piece for his Robert Johnson project, as his last email was confusing me.  Didn't know what he wanted, and his request for dpi measurements for photos made no sense either.  He sent a reply a few days later, stating that he still hadn't decided which of my pieces he wanted for this show, though he was leaning toward the Love In Vain piece, which he called "badass."   I suppose it is.  Of the three woodcuts I sent him as possibilities, it is in my opinion the best one, even though it's a horizontal, and I don't know if that would work.  

Also while home, I checked out some of what I had in the basement.  The most practical thing for me to do in terms of framing work for shows is to work with frames I already have.  Saves money, uses things that already fit in the limited storage space I have, and all the places I used to buy frame parts have gone out of business.  Looking at what I had downstairs, and taking a few measurements, I decided that the frames and plexi I had will work fine.  I should recut the mats however, so I may try to buy more mat board (I think I can still get that) and make new mats for what I put in the tenants show.  But that's not until the fall, so I have time on that. 

My phone fully charged, and lunch eaten at home, I was ready to go to the Studio.  Brought my camera and my cutting tools, as I planned to make a few changes.  Tom was leaning toward the train image, but I still didn't know if he wanted the slightly too large one he responded to, or the properly sized one.  Simple solution- get one ready for both sizes and take photographs to send.  I had a good photo of the shortened version, so my plan for today was to print a proof at the full size.  And whether or not I used it for Tom's project, that can be the one I put in the local fall show, where there are no size requirements.  

Stopped on the way up for gas, then drove to Ocean Grove.  I was able to carry in everything in one trip, and all was going well, until I reached the basement.  From inside the elevator, I could hear power tools, which meant someone working in the open space in front of Bobby's studio, or in the room by the ramp to outside.  Once I left the elevator I could see who was working and a familiar sight.  It was our maintenance guy and a helper putting together the sink base I created for my former student for her planned printmaking studio in her house.  He asked if it was familiar and I said yes, as it was something I had made once before.  It was mostly intact, so I had to squeeze to get past it to my space.  Dropped off the stuff I was carrying.  Got my camera to take a photo of the assembled table, and it was gone, moved down to its space.  So I went to the office, to let them know that Molly had at least taken the lease out of the envelope, though not signed it yet.  And also let Elyse know about my exchange regarding the flyer.  She thought Molly's name was on the things.  I don't know, and it's not really my concern.  Stopped by the mens room to grab some paper towels for the eventual clean up, and took a look into the room planned for the future print studio.  My sink base was there, but now without the legs at one end.  Don't know what that's about, as I saw it fully built earlier.

I also spotted Mary's small roller press in that room, so I guess that was also picked up and brought over.  

That room will need a lot more work before it is ready to be a studio. but I'm glad the things have been brought over.

For today's plan, I needed to prepare a few things.  Paper first while my hands were still clean. Pulled out a sheet of Rives Lightweight, tore it down to the proper size. and set aside. Done.

Next I dug out the block for that print.  I removed all the blue tape that was left from the last time I printed it.  The ink under it was dry, but my idea was to cut all that dry ink away.  Removing that wood meant that it wouldn't pick up ink again.  Done.  Next was taking some ink out of the can and preparing it.  I went with the Outlaw Black I had been using, plus I had some available.  Used an ink knife to get some ink out of the can and spread it- warming it up and pulling out some bits of skin.  Then I inked the block.  One big change- for the first time I was printing the text I had carved beneath the images, lyrics to the song that inspired it. Paper was torn to a size to allow this.  Once the block was inked I place the paper on top and began the rubbing process.  Then re-inking, to get those parts of the block that had not been taking ink.  Took it as far as I could, then lifted off the paper and did some touch up with mat board, on places that just wouldn't take ink.  Results can be seen below.

For music I had not brought either of my books of discs, and decided I would just find something that was there.  What I didn't know was that I would take something from the pile of discs that Molly had brought in and left on the shelving unit.  So as I worked, I had on two discs of music from Nina Simone.  Both released in the 60's.  I think the albums were I Put a Spell on You (1965) and Nina Simone Sings the Blues (1967). Neither was something that I feel I have to own, but neither was worse than the lesser things in my Jazz/Blues book, so not bad to work to, and something new for me.

I also took photos of it at the large format, or what I think will work for the Nashville part of this project.  Saw one more area that could use some touch up and tried to fix it while it was up on my tack wall, leaning over bags and the shelving unit.  This turned out to be a bad idea, and a little ink ended up in one of the white areas.  I can fix this when dry, at least good enough to take a photo, if it's the one Tom ends up selecting.

Back home I edited the photos for this blog posting.  Despite the unfortunate bit of ink, I did learn two important things from today's printing. First, I can edit the photo in such a way to exclude that bit of text, so if it's not needed for Nashville, not a problem.  I also saw some reflection in the top of the image, that no amount of editing could remove.  So I couldn't use this photo for the Nashville project anyway.   Once dry I will try to remove the mistake with the ink and take some better photos of the result.