Traveling Riverside Blues- Finished

 Went back to the Studio today to try to finish this latest Robert Johnson print.  Of course I brought my blues discs with me, while the altered block and my previously torn paper was already there.  I also brought my cutting tools, just in case I needed them.  I had come up there yesterday to cut more on the block, and I hoped that would be enough, but there was no way to really know without actually printing it.

My hope was to print two copies, one with the lyrics, and one without.  The former would be for the upcoming exhibition there in our building, and this print with lyrics should fit well in the mat I cut for last year's Tenants show, and used again recently in the Asbury Park show, my take on "Love in Vain."  The latter would be to send to Tom as an update on my latest Robert Johnson prints.  I decided to start with the one without lyrics first, as the image had to work there, before I would show it anyway.  And if it worked, I could do the one with the lyrics for the upcoming show, which would be collected the week after next.  

I started by putting on some vintage blues, in this case my home burned copy of two old John Lee Hooker albums moved from vinyl to a disc.  You can read about this disc on this blog back in October of 2021.  Then printing.  I don't know if the practice I had printing Mary's woodcuts for her show in August helped, but this seemed to go well and faster than the other prints done in this series.  Meanwhile, Molly showed up again, to pick up her recent product I guess.  She didn't stay long, saying she was taking things down the street, and she would be back soon.  Meanwhile I continued with my hand printing of the changed block.  (Molly agreed that the female figure in the first proof was too dark, but liked the rest of the image) After I finished printing that second proof I compared the two, and decided that the new version was much better. I also saw improvement with the other areas I had changed, but I knew to look, and none of those were as problematic as the female figure.

Printing the proof took only about an hour or so, so I decided to go ahead and print the next proof, the one with the lyrics.  However, before anything else, I inked up and printed the lyric section on newsprint.  I figured the image was printed once before so I should print the lettering once.  Based on that, I had to trim a few small bits around the lettering, but mostly it was fine.  I had a slightly larger piece of paper prepared already.  The only real difference was that instead of taping over the text, this time I was taping around the text.  Otherwise, inking and printing is the same process. 

The John Lee Hooker disc ended, so I put on a Buddy Guy disc I had made for Texas, which you can read about back in February of 2020 if you want to know more.  Printing this one was also not too difficult.  Probably helped that it had been printed before- first last Friday, then earlier today.  The resulting print also looked acceptable to me.  Below is the version with text, which is likely the one I will frame for the upcoming show:

With those two proofs completed, I decided this print is done.  I still want to pull two new proofs of the other two Johnson prints I plan to show this time, and getting them done later this week means they will be dry in time to frame for the show.  I may print other proofs of this one as well, to have available, but at least I am done with it in time for this exhibition. Molly never came back, so after putting everything back to way it was before I got there, I locked up and left.