It Was the Fourth of July

 Today is a special day for a number of reasons.  It is the Fourth of July, which is always the anniversary of the founding of this nation.  (That is to say the official signing of the Declaration of Independence, actual voting happened a few days earlier.) It is a national holiday, celebrated with business closings, picnics, and fireworks.  On this particular July 4th, it is the 250th anniversary of the signing of that document, a nice round number.  Our nation claims to be the first to end its relationship with its founding nation, and definitely inspired many others that followed.  Every nation that was once a colony of another nation or that overthrew its king, owes us for being an example. Happy to oblige.

But for me personally, this was the start and end of my biggest project, my The Fourth of July print series, 366 individual woodcut prints done from July 4, 1993 through July 4, 1994, a daily record of that year.  I have exhibited the complete set of prints 4 times, twice in Illinois (where I was living at the time I did it) and twice in New Jersey.  The prints always were shown in the form of a giant grid, the dimensions of which varied with the wall(s) provided for the exhibition.  It also exists as a bound photocopy book and an online blog.  I have two complete sets of the prints and that is all there will be, as many of the blocks were destroyed by Hurricane Sandy.  However, the blog is available to anyone with internet access, by clicking the link on the list to the right.

The blog includes individual posts of every print in the series, along with a short description of the event that inspired it.  Like all blogs, it is shown backwards, so the last print is the first one, and the first print is the last one shown.   Earlier today I looked through my bound version.  Cutting is somewhat crude by my current standards, but keep in mind I was producing one for each day, at the same time was doing other prints, taking classes, doing glass blowing, teaching classes, and drawing an animated film, plus all the things documented in the series.  And I finished it on time- very happy to be done with it.  

Above is a screen shot of the blog itself, but for me the best part was looking at the bound images.  I already know the stories.  Thanks to having done this series, I will never forget them, even the very minor things that happened over the course of that year.  I may have gotten that lesson from my friend Dave, who did a mini-conic story a few years before my series, also about a particular Fourth of July, which he will never forget having made a comic about it. 

Boardwalk Bar part 28

 For today they were predicting triple digit temperatures for beach towns in the area.  Definitely a day to get up to the Studio in the morning.  My space is in the basement, which is naturally a little cooler than upstairs, though you do have to be careful of the dampness down there.  No big predictions of humidity today, which helps.  Sure enough, the Studio was tolerable today, so a good day to get some work done.  As usual, I cleared off my table first, got the current proof off the wall, and prepared my watercolors.  I decided to continue with the blues today, so I put in that narrow piece of sky, then some of the blue colors that can be found on the bar patrons and employees.  Even a little bit on the televisions above the bar.  When that was done, I decided to go next to the greens, once again on the bar patrons, employees, and televisions, plus parts of the beer bottles.  After each color I let it hang from my table to accelerate the drying.  I decided that was enough for today so packed up, cleaned up, and took the photo below to document today's work:

I made a few obvious changes from my practice proof.  The standing woman in the lower part of the right panel now has a deeper blue dress.  And the bright green that had been seen in both panels of the practice proof was replaced with a more subdued color, a bluish green.   This may work better for the final version,  but I won't know until it's all done and I get a chance to see it all together.  Otherwise, everything is more or less the same as the first try.  And between thicker paint, and more careful brushwork, no leaks past the lines so far.

I had no plans for music today, so I just went through the rock/pop book until I found something that sounded good to me.  What I went with was the live album by X, Live at the Whiskey-a-Go-Go, which I wrote about in detail on this blog back in June of 2022 for those interested.  This is a simple home burned copy of the Studio, of a disc I have owned since I lived in Williamsburg, so a long time ago.  As with other home burned discs, at times the player I have there in the Studio had problems with some songs, but taking it out and restarting it did the job.