Asbury Park Punk Rock Flea Market....and open studio

 

Today was the Asbury Park Punk Rock Flea Market, the second such event held at the Jersey Shore Arts Center.   This is not something organized by the building, but rather by an outside organizer.   As such we had little to do with it.  It was decided to also have an Open Studio event at the same time.  I knew about all this from an email.  As part of that we were offered the chance to take down our art from the Tenants Show if we wanted to.  However, when  I went in a few days later, I was specifically asked to keep my work up, as there is nothing else to go there now, and our director mentioned particularly liking my work, and thought it would be appreciated by the expected guests.  Any work I take home, I have to store, and it's true that there is some overlap between the woodcut and blues audience and the punk audience, so I decided to leave them on the wall.  

I got there around 10:00 am, about an hour before the event was scheduled to begin.  Some vendors were already setting up on the 1st floor, and I saw my three woodcuts up on the wall, behind tables set up with records.  It took me two trips to bring everything in,  as I wanted to saw a block first, before anyone arrived in my space.  I was told that there would be signs up to direct people to the basement, but I didn't see any.  Nor did I see little Bobby Duncan in his basement space, though last week he told me he expected to be.  Knowing his medical situation, I will forgive him that. I also moved a few of Molly's screens, to make the path to the sink door easier to walk.  And then I was ready.

I thought I'd make a quick trip upstairs to check out the flea market and take a few photos, but when I got up there and opened my camera case, I saw the camera was already turned on.  That's not good.  It automatically shuts down after a few minutes, so the battery should not have been in danger, but on the back screen was a message that the memory card was locked.  I didn't do that, and have never done that, so I didn't know how to unlock it.  I took the camera back to my space, played with every menu I could find, and couldn't figure out how to unlock the card.  So no photos today.  

I had no idea if anyone would make it to the basement, but I wasn't worried because I had work to do.  I started with my blood draw block, which I stopped working on to work on my holiday card, so I started with that.  Not much left- just some lines to male gray tones in some broad areas, and also a few lines to separate some black shapes from each other.  It didn't take long, and wouldn't have been worth taking a photo of anyway.  Next time it's seen here, it  will be inked up.

Next up was the block I sawed today, cutting a spare piece of birch I had in half.  This was for a new Robert Johnson block.  I still haven't heard anything new about the project.  I wonder if it's because one of the big names attached to the project has been spending a lot of time out of the country lately, but I don't want to speculate here.  The three lyric inspired prints I have completed are currently on the wall upstairs, and I don't know about doing more until I hear something, but I do have ideas for three more, and decided to start the one I can do without help from anyone else.  The pieces I did seemed to be well liked, so starting another one seemed not a bad idea.  As with others I have done, I'll save an image of the piece until I complete the drawing.  Meanwhile, I finished sketching the main idea, and I have a plan for the background, but my source for that was at home, so no point in starting that.

As for visitors, I only had three, in my first 4 hours of open studio, a family group (father and two kids), one of whom had last been in the building as a student.  I gave him an update on how things had changed, answered questions, etc.  He said he had seen no signs upstairs mentioning anything about anyone in the basement.  But I had my doors open, and played appropriate music from various punk bands I have in my available library, such as X, The Wipers, Gun Club, and The Brood. all of which can be found somewhere on this blog.  With no one else showing  up, I gave up and prepared to go home.  On my way out, I passed through the flea market main floor, and looked briefly at what was for sale. Not surprisingly, a lot of music, but most on vinyl, which I can't play right now.  So I picked up no new music to listen to.  To my surprise, one of vendors had in his display a vinyl LP of Hate to See You Go by Little Walter, a great blues album, but I can't listen to vinyl right now, and I have a copy on disc in storage right now.

Just outside the building I ran into my former student Nellie, who came to my Open Studio back in the winter or spring, and thought I might be there.  I suppose I shouldn't be surprised she was there, as the first print she did after my class was a portrait of GG Allin.  I followed her inside.  She's interested in learning more woodcut, but the class isn't being offered these days, the building's idea, not mine.  Says she's been taking classes in figure drawing, concentrating on head and figure.  To me, there is no better way to learn drawing, so I encouraged her to continue.  And then I finally left.

Back home, my first order of business was to find the directions book for my camera and figure out how to unlock my memory card.  It mentioned a sliding tab on the card itself, which seemed to have nothing to do with the camera being accidentally turned on.   (maybe it happened when I was moving the card from my laptop to the case, after the last time I downloaded photos)  It never occurred to me to look there, but now I know to do that.  Seemed to solve the problem, and to make sure I took this photo of today's paper.

So next time I go to the Studio, I may have something to share with you.