Traveling Riverside Blues part 10

 I had one print left to pull in the Robert Johnson series, with plans to sign and number them next week.  On my way into the building I decided to check the prints I had on the wall, to make sure of what the numbering will be. To my surprise, my prints were not on the wall on the first floor.  I can't complain too much, as the show was only supposed to be up though the end of November, and it ended up being on display until the end of February.  This left the conclusion that the framed prints were either in my Studio in the basement, or in the office, also in the basement.  I stopped in my space first, and found them leaning up against my shelving unit.  I had to move them to the side to make room for the things I have on my table, but I had space to do that.  Meanwhile, I again saw evidence that Molly had been there using the space.  I took care of the various tasks I needed to, but at least I didn't have to carve the lettering on the day's block again, as I had done that last time.  For music I brought my rock/pop book and selected my home burned disc of favorites of the Wipers, made for my Texas trip, from commercial discs I had on my shelf, best written about back in July of 2019.

The last print I want to pull before anything happens in Brooklyn is the last print from my Robert Johnson series, Traveling Riverside Blues. It's one of the prints I just had on display upstairs, so I will have to take that into account when I number this new one.  It has been inked and printed before, so it did not take too long to do it again today.  I could see that there was some ink down between left behind raised bits, but I didn't want in those places today.  The image has lots of shadows that suit the subject, so it's a pretty dark print, but few broad areas of solid black. It got done.  Results are shown below:

Not perfect, but I think I can fix it after it dries, and the image area is as good as this one gets.  And I do like the print in general.  I made room in my drying rack and put this last print there.  I got the print finished by the time my first disc ended, so I didn't bother with a second disc. 

As I said, I think I can clean up the flaws in some prints. But next is trying to contact Tom and seeing what is going on with this show, and seeing how and where and when he wants them shipped.  Perhaps I'll try this weekend.  There's nothing else I can do until we settle all this.

Love In Vain part 13

 I've pulled no print in this Robert Johnson series as much as I have pulled copies of the print for Love in Vain, but I guess that's because it may be the most popular in the series.  I have sold two of them, and have orders for a third.  It has been exhibited in two locations, and may be in a third.  That is why I was dealing with it today.  To this point I have new acceptable proofs of all the vertical prints in the series, and the two horizontal prints I have printed with the lyrics for the purpose of framing them, but those proofs have paper tape hinges on them from the framing process, and may not be suitable for what is wanted.  I still have no real idea, as I haven't heard anything about this print fair since December, but I do know that March begins in a few days, so I need to do something soon.  I did look at the email that mentioned something, and it specifically named the print fair, which is not the one I had originally found, but the dates are the same.  I should look into that soon, but for now I have some printing to do. 

I had my good cutting tools with me, so I decided to cut both blocks.  Nothing new, just cleaning up a few spots, mostly around the lettering.  

Since Molly wasn't around, I listened to music from home- my rock/pop collection and my home burned disc of Sharon Jones, mentioned on this blog back in June of 2016.  I took care of both blocks, and decided to print Love in Vain mostly because Tom had named it as his favorite of the first three, so whatever he wants for this fair, I would think this one would be part of it.  I will print the other one next week, so both will be available.  This block has one other problem, in that it was the one done at the wrong size for the set, about 1.5" too wide.  I was able to produce a smaller (accurate size) version of the image only, but the lyrics are designed for the full version, and today I was printing lyrics as part of it.   Since this one has been printed more than any other, initial inking did not take long.  What I remembered from previous printings was that some of the broad black areas took a lot of re-inking to get them right, a common problem for large black areas of woodcuts.  But in the end I got it done, as can be seen in the image below:

I was able to find room for this one in the rack, but next time I will have to move something in there to make room.  Still, it's best to have it drying in the rack, and ink dries from both sides, making the rack the place to be.  The first disc ended, so I put on U Resdy, Man by Hobex, which has a soul sound and pairs well with the Sharon Jones, thus a combination I have done before.  In fact, the two discs occupy the same page in this book.  Stopped on the way home to pick up some lunch and ate it when I got there.

32-20 Blues part 11

 One more print to go in my plan to pull proofs of all prints in the Robert Johnson series, which was my 32-20 Blues print, which was done as part of my first batch, and printed for exhibition back in 2022.  However, that one did not include the lyrics, and at this point I expect to need one like that.  In fact, this was one of the prints where I had never printed the lyrics, so I inked and printed those a few weeks ago.  This time I planned to print the whole thing.

I knew I had everything I would need, but that didn't mean I wouldn't have something new.  In this case it was the ink.  When printing images for my former student's (and mine it turned out) show in Asbury Park, I had her order 2 cans of ink.  We only used one in making the prints, and not even all of that, and I have been using the rest of that can in doing the other proofs I have made recently.  However, last week when I pulled the third one, I used the last of that old can, so today I opened up the other can.  Same brand, so I expect the black will be the same.  (this can't be assumed otherwise, as black isn't always black, and so I had my 2D students buy two of the same marker for the first project, as they were likely to need a second pen anyway, and this made it more likely that the colors would match)  So one of the first things I did in the Studio was open the new can.

I had wax paper to cover the new open ink, and generic vaseline to coat the top of the can, which makes it both airtight and keeps ink from drying it shut.  As for music, no Molly today so I had my choice.  One of the morning shows had Hank Azaria as a guest, and he was doing his imitation Springsteen (a charity thing) character, so I decided to listen to some Bruce this morning in the Studio.  And since the song he did on TV was from the Born in the USA album, I decided to start with my copy of the Volume II disc, which has several tunes from that album, though not the one I saw performed today.  It's on this disc that I have albums from what I consider Bruce's American period, which I consider to be influential on some of my own artwork.  With new ink, and old everything else, I got started.  Results can be seen below:

As with other recent proofs, this may be the best version of the image that I have ever produced, in addition to being the only copy of this one I have with the words that inspired it.  This is probably my least favorite of all the ones in the series, but it is still a good print, and something I don't mind exhibiting with my name on it.  The one home made and home burned disc was enough for me to pull the proof and get everything cleaned up.  After that I put the finished proof in my rack to dry, took a blotter proof of the block to help it dry, before putting that in the rack as well. Now I have at least one copy each of all 6 prints with the lyrics on them, though two are trimmed and have tape hinges for framing.   I need to check with Tom soon and see what he wants and when he wants it.  

Walkin' Blues part 14

 Next up in my printing for the print fair is Walkin' Blues, which I think was the first one completed.  But while I have printed that image area a few times (including one sale), I have never printed one with the lyrics.  I proofed the lyrics by themselves recently just to have a layer of ink on there, but I need an actual print.  

There had been snow in the forecast for today, but then the storm changed direction.  We may still get the back end of the storm tonight, but that doesn't affect me going to the Studio and getting a little work in. The block has been printed before, even the lettering now, and I used a gouge to clean up a little recently, so I figured I could get this in before things got bad.  I brought the rock/pop book of discs with me today, thinking I would decide on what to listen to when I got there.  

No Molly present, so I had the music to myself.  Decided to listen to the Beatles' Abbey Road album, maybe because a few days ago we had the 50th anniversary SNL show, and McCartney closed things with the last 3 major songs of the album, ones he wrote I guess. (you shouldn't need my past write up to know about this album)  I had saved a little ink from the last can, in folded wax paper, so it didn't take long to get ready today.  The block was in my rack from the recent cutting, and the paper was in its usual box.  Inking seemed to go fast, but then I found during printing that I needed to do a lot of re-inking, so in the end, it was like all the other sessions.  But when I was done, I seemed to have another proof.  Results from today are below:

One thing I noticed even while still printing was a tiny bit of stray ink appearing in the left side margin, Very noticeable in that white area.  I may be able to fix this after it dries, which would be good because I don't really want to print it again.  As I finished printing it, my disc ended, and I decided to follow it with another Beatles album- Beatles For Sale.  First of all, you never need an excuse to listen to a second Beatle album.  And even though this one is considered by some to be one of the band's lesser albums (there are some high bars here), I have always liked it, at least well enough that I burned a copy to keep in the Studio, which is why I have it now.  Printing was done, but then comes the inevitable cleaning, my palette, the tools, etc.  With that all done, I could put away everything and go home, well ahead of any snow.  The print went in my rack to dry with the others recently printed, and can stay there until next week, when it should be warmer, and no snow is expected.  

Cross Roads Blues part 13

 Various things kept me from getting to the Studio yesterday, and today's speech therapy was a little later that it had been, so I decided to get up to the Studio a little early this morning and proof another block for the possible print fair next month.  (I did some searching on the internet, and found there is a major print fair coming up toward the end of March, which may suit my current schedule) 

One thing I found was that Molly had been there.  I didn't see her, but I did see evidence that she had been there and used the space.  Since she wasn't there, I switched the boom box from radio to CD, and I had my rock/pop book with me, and selected my Gun Club disc.  This is the whole first album, Fire of Love, plus I filled the rest of the disc with some live tracks from a disc I got in St Louis on a trip there in grad school many years ago, a disc you can read about on this blog back in November of 2019.  Though not acoustic, the Gun Club does seem to me more like Robert Johnson that anything else I have that's not acoustic blues. 

My new plan for today was to pull a proof of the Cross Roads Blues print, with the lyrics.  This is the second proof like this I have done, having made one for the sale to Virginia last year.  But I don't have that one any more, so now I will have one.  Below is the results of today's session:

The cutting I did the other day helped, and there wasn't much to pick up unwanted ink, though cutting out old stuff always means new things to pick up ink, so I used less tape that I had taken off, but had to use some in my printing process.  Obviously, it worked out.

Like the last one I did, this may be the best proof of the image I have ever done, and it includes the lyrics which help explain what I have done and why I created the image.  I believe I wrote before that many associate this song with the Crossroads legend that Johnson is known for, but nothing about that is mentioned in this song, nor is it mentioned in any of the songs he recorded, even though that incident would have taken place before he recorded anything.  I interpreted some actual lyrics from the song, and I think it works.

That's now two done for the show, which I still know nothing about.  Meanwhile I cleaned up my ink, put everything in my drying rack to continue drying, and locked up.  Had time to get home, change clothes, eat a little lunch, and get to my appointment on time. 

Terraplane Blues part 15

 Some rain today, but that was predicted to end by afternoon, and the temperatures were expected to be about 10 degrees above freezing, so it seemed like the day to go to the Studio.  (tomorrow may be icy, if the tv weathermen can be trusted) I brought the rock/pop book of discs with me, with no particular plans as to what I would play.  However, I knew I would be printing something for the potential print fair show coming up.  

I got to the Studio, and with Molly not around, put on some music.  What I ended up playing was a home burned copy of two Beatles albums, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour, two psychedelic albums from 1967 that fit well together.  Actually, the latter was just the six songs from the film in England on a pair of EP's, but in America it was turned into an LP by adding to the six songs some uncollected singles from that year, and the American version became the standard, so when compact discs of Beatles albums were finally done in the late 80's, that America only LP was used as the standard.  (the compact disc version lacks the booklet with photos and cartoon story telling of the film that appeared on the old LP, and I know because I have both) At some point I put the combination on disc to keep at the Studio, and so I have it now, and wrote about it in detail back in November of 2021 if you want to know more.

A few days ago I came in and trimmed away a few bits around the lettering of the lyrics (still didn't have a good copy of this one with the lyrics) and within the image, so all I had to do today was ink the block and tape a few minor problem areas.  A few areas needed further inking and rubbing, but no more than any other woodcut does, and the paper didn't slip this time. Results can be seen below:

It turned out as well as could be hoped.  The lettering of the lyrics is all clear, and the image is as good a copy as any I have ever printed.  I will sign and trim it later, but this one looks good.  One down, and 3 to 5 more to go, depending on what Tom wants.  I put this one in the rack to dry, and next time I pull a proof of another from the set of Robert Johnson prints.  

A Little More Cutting

 I knew I needed to do a little more cutting on my Robert Johnson blocks, specifically the lyric areas of the vertical images, in case I need them for the print fair next month.  But as long as I was fixing things with carving tools, I figured I may as well cut away everything that accidentally picked up some ink in printing, since I had the tools present and it needed to be done before I printed it all again. I had brought my good carving tools with me this morning, along with a single disc, my home burned Billy Childish set, written about on this blog back in December of 2019 and probably many other times as well.  Going up two days in a row is not typical for me, but snow is predicted the next few days, I figured best to get up there now. No idea when I will get up there again to do the next step.

I only brought one disc because I knew it would not be a long session. I had to bring my father to an event late in the morning, so the plan was to get up there early and take care of this planned business quick. One disc would be enough.  

I started with Cross Roads Blues, a block done long ago, so definitely dry.  These lyrics have been printed before (for a purchase), but I knew there were plenty of stray marks to clean up, so tape pulled off and black ink areas carved away.  I think I got all of it, at least those parts I could carve.  (a knot will have to stay, but probably taped over)  Then I moved on to Terraplane Blues, just printed last week, but I saw a bunch of flaws there before the who piece of paper shifted.  I cut away what needed to be done, and will hope it's enough.  The blocks and wood shavings can be seen below:

Then I moved on to the other two blocks.  These were the ones that I printed the lyrics of just yesterday, trimming that which I didn't need, bits revealed in the inking process.  Didn't take any photos of these, but not much changed. 

Prints done and time to get home and on to the next step in my day's journeys.  Next time I get in there, I will probably print one of the new proofs with lyrics. Which one I am not sure yet.  All have to get done eventually, so it probably doesn't matter.

Studio Business

One thing I knew I had to do was print the two sets of lyrics that had never been printed yet, or two Robert Johnson prints from the first set I did.  I had printed the images years ago, and exhibited those images, but not the lyrics, which I expected would be done by the letterpress shop that was expected to be a part of the Nashville exhibition.  But since that is now off, I feel it's best to print all of these with the lyrics in case they are needed.  I checked previously and found that two had never been printed.  I do this because parts of a block that have been printed at least once before print better than wood that has never been printed, so I may as well bring these last two to the same level as all the others.

The two blocks in question were on the shelf of the unit I built under my tack wall, and by now completely dry.  I found two small pieces of print paper, folded and too small to ever use for a print, but big enough to hold these lyric sections.  I prepared some ink, and one by one I rolled up the lettering, taped off sections I didn't want to print, and pulled proofs by hand rubbing of the two sections.  Results are shown below:

By the way, these lyrics (the one part of these prints that is definitely created by Johnson) come from the 32-20 Blues and Walkin' Blues if you find yourself wanting to see the image that I came up with to go with these words.

While this went on, I had brought my rock/pop disc book with me today and opened it to a random page, from which I selected my home burned Flat Duo Jets cd, songs from some early full length albums that I had, written about back in January of 2020 if you want to know more.  No other reason I picked this disc, but then I don't think anyone needs and excuse to listen to the Flat Duo Jets.   By the time that disc ended I had printed my two sets of lyrics and cleaned up all my ink.  Next phase will be cutting, but I plan to do that another day.  I put the newly inked blocks in my drying rack, and two of my former student's blocks that I had printed over the summer (and now completely dry) on the shelf today's had come from.

Open Studio 2025

 Last night there was still some uncertainty about what the weather would be today.  Some predictions said snow, some said ice, some said rain, some said all, some said at different times.  Meanwhile, a meeting was scheduled for today to talk about the upcoming Open Studio event.  With a car parked in a way that kept me from using mine, all I could do is tell the organizer that I didn't know if I could make it or not. He did reply that he would send the relevant information if I couldn't make it, so I went to sleep.  This morning I saw very little snow had fallen, it was already raining, the road didn't look too icy.  New weather reports said that it would warm up and whatever was falling (all rain now in this area) would be done by around 10 am.  No emails saying that the meeting was cancelled, and my mother wanted to get out of the house, which freed my car.  I guess I was going to the meeting.

My original plan was to do some Studio stuff before the meeting, but I had to wait for my parents to leave, and decided to stop at the supermarket first, so that didn't happen.  Not a big deal.  The meeting was to be held in the studio of the organizer, artist Joe Borzotta, and I knew where that was on the 2nd floor.  Took care of my business and got there a few minutes before the scheduled meeting.  There were only five people present.  

The overall plan is to get as many people as possible to come to the event and to concentrate on getting visitors to the studios of resident artists, and not worry too much about vendors and other attractions that might interfere with that goal.  (sometimes these things are held in tandem with a vendor event, which generally keeps people out of the basement)  I'm all for that.  At this point, the plan calls for postcards again, names of artists if they are known, artists are expected to so some self promotion (I always do), and ad in the Tri-City News (local paper) and not NJ Monthly (too expensive).  Our in house promotion is good and over the years we have increased our list of interested persons. It was decided we would invite some of the more arts connected people in the region, but we have no idea if they will come.  We also discussed exterior advertising (a banner) on our building, signage in and around, perhaps marking the studios a little better so visitors can find them, as well as whether or not we  wanted to hold a before, after, or both gathering for the artists.  In the meeting we favored a brunch before rather than something after, but I guess it all depends on the budget.  

And that was pretty much all for today.  As of now the event is scheduled for Sunday April 13th, from 11 to 5 pm, about two months from now.  I'll mark it on my calendar.  I always have something to work on, so it won't be hard to come up with a project for visitors to see.  The challenge is getting people to the basement.  Sometimes I get 50 or more visitors, sometimes I get none, and usually nothing in between. It all depends on what they tell visitors and if they remember that any of us are down in the basement.  (last time they mentioned art studios on floors 1-3 in the program given out at the door, but nothing about the basement, and I had no visitors) Whether I have my lights on, music playing, or serve refreshments matters little if they don't tell people that there is something going on in the basement.  I reminded them of this today.

The meeting was short, but I did want to get home and had no time to get any art done, but as long as I made the trip, I wanted to check out one thing- had I yet printed the lyrics of any of the other Robert Johnson prints.  I found all six completed blocks, and found that two have never had the words printed.  I should probably do that soon, to make sure if anything more needs to be cut, and to have a layer of ink on those.  I can print those on scrap paper next time, and cut everything after that, and still make whatever deadline I may have.

Terraplane Blues part 14

 Late last year I learned that the plan for the Nashville show of the Robert Johnson prints is off for now, but Tom did write something about showing the prints in his booth at a print fair in Brooklyn in March.  That's coming soon, so I probably should do something about it.  I don't know any specific dates or the location yet, only that he said that one would be shown in a frame.  Which one?  I don't know any more than you do.  I hope he tells me something soon, but who knows?  Meanwhile, I can see what I have and what I might need to do.  If he wants them all, I'll send him the whole set.  Whatever it takes to sell this project.

I did start making a list of things to buy online for the next boardwalk print, but I haven't called in the order yet, as that has no deadline, and this might.  So for now I will get back to the Johnson project, and the first part was seeing what I had.  All six that I have done so far included me carving the chosen lyric under the image.   This would not be needed for the Nashville show, as we had a plan to have that added by letterpress by the shop making the prints, but that's out now.  As a result, I didn't print the lyrics unless I needed them for something else.  I did include them on the two horizontal images I showed in recent years in Ocean Grove, but not in any of the vertical ones I framed.  (those purchased and sent to Virginia had them as requested by the collectors, but I don't have those now) But now I seem to need them, so today's time went toward that.  

While everything was still dry, I played around with paper and decided to go with a full sheet for each proof.  A half sheet of the Rives Lightweight would have been too tight.  This will look better for the proofs, and be easier.  (probably have to add a few sheets to my order of art supplies) Plenty of ink, though.

It was in inking those words that I found a problem- some was just not cut enough and some stray marks showed up.  Hoped that blue tape would do the job.   The rest of the image wasn't bad, possibly the best proof I ever took of this image.  I could see that the image area needed some re-inking as well in spots, but I'm used to that.  But then I found another problem- the paper shifted just a little.  I might be able to fix the spots in the image with some careful mat board touch up, but not the lettering.  Then the paper shifted some more, and that was all.  Time to clean up.

I did learn a few things at least.  Learned what I had in terms of supplies.  Learned how much paper it would take.  Learned how much paper I would need and how to best place it.  Next time will be better.  Meanwhile, I put this print in my drying rack and called it a day.