Bakery part 7

 Today was a big day- to see if I could get a good proof of the latest block.  Got up to the Studio building with no problems, found a parking space in the main lot (only handicapped available, but I have a permit for that) and went inside.  Stopped on the 1st floor to use the men's room and to grab some extra paper towels for cleaning up my printing.  While still in there I heard power tools, and saw some workmen by the outer edge of the hallway that leads to the elevator.  No problem- I figure I can get around them, but then Jeanne shows up to tell me the elevator is out of order for now.  There are a few stairways down to the basement, and I decide that the central stairway (under the main staircase) is the best bet, as it has a banister.  For me, going up stairs is easy, but going down it really helps to have something to hold on to.  I make it down to my space.

After cleaning off my table, the first task is to clean up the recent block.  Mostly this was removing all the areas that took unwanted ink.  A little time was devoted to improving things already cut (mostly lettering on the sign) and a few little cases of cutting things missed the first time.  I got all that done and the block looked good, as you can see below:

I put out some ink and began the process of rolling it up.  I took my time and wanted to make sure I had enough ink on the block, as I didn't want a repeat of the slippage problems I had last time.  Blue tape after inking, and I can say for sure that I needed less tape this time, so all that earlier cutting wasn't wasted.  I had a piece of Heavyweight ready to go, so I just put that on top and hand rubbed everything.  Here are the results:

Not perfect, but good enough to show, assuming I make no mistakes in coloring it.  I do have two practice proofs to use if I need them for coloring experiments before I get to this one.  After documenting it, I left it in my rack to dry.  I will let it sit at least a week before I touch it.  My source photo is on a computer at home, so I guess I will take a proof home eventually to start the coloring process.  But for today, I left everything there.

For music today, I decided to start with a home burned copy of a classic disc from my collection, Bob Brozman's Devil's Slide album, a late 80's collection of slide guitar in all genres, and previously written about on this blog back in February of 2020.  That ended about the time I finished printing, but I still had clean up to do, so I went back to my jazz/blues book and took out a collection of Django Reinhardt, a home burned copy of a collection I had on disc called Djangology Vol I 1934-1935.  (blogged back in May of 2024)  In that era, there were no albums, so these songs would have been issued as 78's.  I have played these two discs together before (according to this blog) as they kind of go together, with Reinhardt doing jazz and blues in the 1930's, and Brozman playing mostly early 20th century music.  In fact, I think the two discs may share a song, though the former has it as an instrumental, and the latter includes sung lyrics.  

As expected, climbing stairs out of the basement was easier than going down.  On my way home I was parked at a red light next to the construction site along route 35, and while I decided not to do a print about the long ago Pat's Diner that was once on that site, I  decided to take this photo of what they have built there so far:

Long way to go on this, and they have done nothing so far on the northern half of the lot, but I am told that the plans for all this are apartments.  I pass this site twice every time I go to the Studio, so I guess you will find out eventually as well.

Studio Day

 I want to give my most recent block a few more days to dry before I cut some more out of it, so I decided to work on something else today.  Made a number of stops on the way there, then pulled into the main lot of the art building in late morning.  No meetings going on in the hallway today, so I went right to my space.

Several months ago I cut up my last piece of lauan, left over from a long time ago, and surfaced two pieces with wood filler.  I had decided to buy it in tube form this time and found it very difficult to get on to the boards.  So this time I decided just to slice open the tube and get it out that way.  Meanwhile, I had been working on straightening out the boards not used for the last boardwalk print, especially after I noticed the curvature in the board I had used.  To do this I was clamping the two remaining boards to my table, gradually increasing the number of pieces on the far ends, trying to bend it in the opposite direction of the bend that the wood already had.  Below shows what that looked like:

Last week I had decided that this clamping process seemed to be working, and that the board intended for the next boardwalk print was fairly straight.  It's also the one I hadn't surfaced with wood filler yet.   Still, I left it in the clamp one more time, and took it out today.  The curve was almost gone, and when placed down on my table, it laid flat.  A good sign.  

I remembered from last time that it was very hard to squeeze that wood filler tube, and deciding there wasn't that much left in it anyway, decided the easiest thing would be to just slash open the tube and pull out what I needed.  Problem- I left my cutting tools at home this morning, and I know I keep an x-acto knife in there, perfect for this task.  Okay, I think there's a knife in my blue pencil bag.  Use that.  Problem #2- when I got to the Studio, I discovered that the pencil bag wasn't in my back pack, so it must also be at home.  On the plan #3- use an metal ink knife from my printing go-bag to open the tube.  A quick stab and a slash, and that tube was open.  Took some out with my ink knife, and used one of Molly's plastic putty knives to spread it thin, then used some fine grit sandpaper from my drawer to smooth it out after it was dry.  (you can see this bit on the linked post near the top of this one)  

I decided to go ahead and do the next step- putting in the panel borders.  Kept it the same as all the other boardwalk print- a diptych with little concave corners, like so many other Japanese woodcut prints.  An image of that can be seen below:

As for what is going there- I have an idea, but I will wait to post that information until after I have a start on the drawing.  My two previously clamped boards were now on top of the table, under another board and some other stuff.  I stopped by the office, and the people were back at their desks.  Jeanne confirmed that she had gotten email from me yesterday (teaching and showing) and hadn't looked at it yet, but would.  I left it at that.  And he leftover wood filler and open tube, I wrapped those up with wax paper (had a roll in my print bag) for the trip home.

For music today, one from the pop/rock book, my Studio copy of the 1999 Red Hot Chili Peppers album, Californication.  (written about best in June of 2020 if you want to know more)  According to this blog, it's been a few years since I had it in the Studio, so it seemed a good time to bring it and listen to it.  It played fine in my Studio machine until track #10, when it would suddenly pause for a long moment.  Did this a few times and I gave up, but track #11 didn't want to start either.  So I stopped it, took out the disc, replaced it, started with track #10, and it played through with no problems.

Bakery part 6

 My plan for today was to print two proofs of my latest block- one for practicing some colors, and one to be the final version to show.   However, before I could do anything else, I ran into the two people who run the building, having a meeting in the storage area of the basement, rather than the office.  (I guess they had their reasons)  This saved me the trouble of walking over to the office to ask some questions I had.  First I had some questions for Jeanne.  One was regarding a woodcut class.   When I spoke to her about it a few months ago, she seemed interested about maybe doing one in the fall, but I see some classes have already been scheduled for September and October (seems like fall to me) and some of them print classes.  My other question for her was regarding exhibiting on the 1st floor, since most the walls are currently empty.  In the past she had expressed some interest in maybe me putting some work up, but I don't want to be the only one, and I have seen no emails regarding showing work.  Her answer to both issues was the same- just talking to her would be unlikely to work, as she rarely remembers anything that anyone tells her, so the best thing would be to send her an email.  Okay, I can do that.  As for our facilities manager (Frank?), I asked him if we had a new policy regarding the main doors (north side) as they have been unlocked in recent weeks, but had been locked 24 hours/day going back to Covid, when we were very concerned with having all our paper products stolen.  He said we had no new policy, just that we had a lot going on in recent weeks, lots of people coming and going, and the doors were left unlocked for convenience.  For now, expect to still meet guests at the main door in case I have to let them in.   And with that business settled, I continued through the basement to my space and opened up.

I had suitable pieces of light and heavy weight Rives available, so I was able to get right to work.  I inked up the block.  It was not easy- too much open space, so I ended up with more ink than I wanted in some areas that should have none.  But that's what the blue tape is for.  Got it done, then pulled a proof on the Lightweight.  First proofs are always the most difficult, and I planned to re-ink and fix the problems, but the paper had shifted on the block and I knew there was no point.  Peeled off the blue tape, recut one area that needed it, then inked it up again to pull another better proof on the Heavyweight.  Parts were better, but parts didn't take ink the first time, and once again I noticed the paper had shifted, and to fix those mistakes would be impossible.  Well, I had two practice proofs now, good for color experiments, but not suitable for exhibition.  I thought about trying a third proof right then, and even tore a new sheet of paper, but then I decided not to.  Had plans to make at least two stops on the way home, so I decided to call it a day.  I did remove all the blue tape again, and blotted the block before leaving.  I put the block aside to let it dry a bit.  I don't need to cut more to improve the image, but I may as well remove those unwanted marks before I ink it again.  Meanwhile, here's what today's proofs look like:

I think the block is fine, so really I just need a better proof to color.  I will do that next time, or even next week.  No deadline on this, so no need to hurry it.

For music today I had brought with me some Jayhawks.  I had home burned a disc to bring to Texas with the whole first big label album (actually the band's third) and most of the following album (technically their fourth), which were the only two albums I had then, and two with band members Louris and Olson, both part of the band in their best years.  (this disc is written about back in November of 2019 if you want to know more) This disc ended up in my Studio set, so this was kind of a reunion.  One song skipped a little, but otherwise it played fine.  When that ended I had only just started cleaning, so went for a third album from the band, Rainy Day Music, which I had as an official label produced release, stuck in my storage box for unknown reasons.  I don't listen to this one as often for some reason (maybe because Olson had left the band at this point) but today it was on while I cleaned up, and it seemed to go well with the earlier albums.  I know three of the songs from massive radio play, and it isn't bad, just not up to the level of the two earlier albums.  

Bakery part 5

Got up to the Studio and picked up where I had left off.  I had taken the block home in between last time and this time, and had done a few things.  I put a little white glue along any horizontal carved shape, as a precaution before doing more cutting today.  And I pulled up my original photo and redrew the trees on the left and the wall triangles on the right. That all done in my time off, I could go right to work today with cutting.  First I did the letters on both parts of the sign, cutting out what will eventually be white.  Then I did the trees and telephone poles on the left side.  Next was the curved canopy over the front door, which will be red and white pieces eventually.  Finally, all the building itself, which is not the focus of the piece, but very important to the whole scene.  And with that, I seemed to be done.  It's not a large piece.  Next week I will proof it, and if I like it, try some color.  I left my camera home today, so I brought the block back home with me to get a photo to post here.  Here it is:

Since there was nothing left to do, I did a little pencil rubbing on it (so I could see it better), then I cleaned up, packed up, and went home.  Like I said, next week I'll print it and see what I got.

For music today I put on a home burned disc of Duke Ellington, favorite tunes from what I believe had been a two disc set called The Essential Duke Ellington.  (blogged about back in November of 2022 if you want to know more about this disc)  From what I remember, the set covers his whole career, which means some of the songs may even predate the bakery.  But I think most are from the time it was there, and definitely some were, so it was appropriate for today.  Played perfectly fine, from start to finish.

Bakery part 4

 As expected, there was some rain this morning, but a light rain, nothing to keep me in the house when I have a block to work on.  I got to the Studio, cleared off my table, and got to work.  My plan for today was to work on the big sign, the most famous thing that the bakery had, at least according to the photos I found online.  I got everything done except the interior white letters on both parts.  As I finished everything else, my disc was already done, and it was almost 12:30 pm.  I decided to save all those letters for next time, document it, clean up, and go home.  Results of today's work can be seen below:

For music today I went with an oldie but a goodie, my home burned version of the British double LP version of Generation Terrorists by the Manic Street Preachers, with the best write up on this blog being June of 2022.  Although my records show that it's been more than a year since I had this one in the Studio, a song from the album was running through my head the past few days, so it got the nod today.  As written above, the very long disc finished shortly before I finished what I did of the sign today, and rather than put of some other music, I decided to save the cutting for another time.  

No rain falling as I left, and just a light sprinkle as I got close to home, not worth putting the wipers on for.  Later in the afternoon, even the sun came out.  There are flash flood warnings for parts of the county through the afternoon, but at both my home and work space, we may be in the clear.

Bakery part 3

 I had two plans for today- first was to drop off and pick up some work, and second was to work on the latest block.  I took care of that first thing first (more on that later), then got to the new block.  The first thing I did was finish off the big chunk of sky I had started last time.  But this didn't take long.  Then I got to all the small pieces of sky to the right of the sign, all the spaces between the supports that hold up the large sign.  I didn't realize how many there were until I started drawing them, but I guess they were needed, and the photo doesn't lie.  I would not be surprised if some of those carried electricity and the sign used to light up at night, but I never saw it then, and it's too late to see it now.  I also cut out a section of sky in the lower part of the image, beneath the sign itself, but above the lower border.  All the sky is done, and that seemed enough for today, so I left it there.   What is left is the trees, the sign, and the building.  What I actually do next remains to be seen.  Photo of today's progress can be seen below:

Just to provide an update, I have been working on coloring my new proof of the Vesuvio print at home, since my color source is computers I have at home, and I planned to be home a bit anyway.  Results of that project can be seen here:

Is this one perfect?  I would say no.  Colors are the best I could do with the watercolors I have at home, and I noticed a few details had filled in with ink when I compared this proof to the one I had photographed years ago.  Before I print it again, I will probably recut those areas.  However, this one is good enough to show, so if I don't get around to doing more cutting and pulling a new proof and coloring it, at least I have something for a future exhibition of this series.  As an added bonus, I now have a copy on paper, so when I do the next proof, I can color it in the Studio, a place where I have a lot more space.

The drop off and pick up was to photograph and leave the Vesuvio print there in the Studio, and to pick up the finished new boardwalk print and put it in my recently repaired (another home based task) folder for that purpose.  The plan is to bring it with me to speech therapy next week, weather permitting.  

As for music today, I tried to put on another Miles Davis album, but after four tries I couldn't get pas the first song, so instead I started with a home burned copy of Gil Scott-Heron's The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, which is an anthology that pulls mostly from his first two albums.  (blogged about back in September of 2021)  Played with no problems at all.  I was still cutting when that ended, so I put on a second home burned disc from my jazz/blues book, the Naked Lunch Soundtrack album which was composed by Howard Shore, and featured the London Philharmonic and saxophonist Ornette Coleman. (best write up on this blog is June of 2019)  One song skipped (as much as a compact disc can) but it righted itself before I could do anything and played fine after that.  Do these two albums have anything in common?  Two things.  Both are part jazz and part not jazz (the former mixing in straight ballads and rap, the latter mixing in a full orchestra), and both were able to play in my box today.

Bakery part 2

 It's been about a week since the last time I worked on this thing, a combination of a few factors including another car repair (minor, doing something now to avoid a problem later) and more medical appointments.  But that's all done for now.  Meanwhile I worked on things at home.

But today I went back to the Studio.  One of the things I did at home was make a few minor improvements  to my bakery block drawing, based on the original photo I had on computers at home.  None of this affected what I had planned for today, but it had to get done sometime and now it is.  I started with my usual thing- outlining the margins and cutting everything beyond the border.  Got that done relatively quickly (it's not a large print) and with lots of time left on the disc I had in, so I went ahead and started cutting out some sky in the image.  I went around everything that bordered it (including those BAKERY circles on the sign) and even got to some of the open sky when the music ended.  Results can be seen below:

No show is scheduled yet for this piece (previous editions of this exhibition were late in the year or early the next year), so continuing on the cutting can wait until next time.  I cleaned up my wood shavings, put everything back where it was, and headed to my next stop.

For music today I pulled out an old favorite- my home burned collection of the Reverend Horton Heat.  This is one complete album (The Full Custom Gospel Sounds...) and a bunch from a greatest hits anthology to fill up the disc.  (blogged about back in November of 2021 if you want to know more) That anthology set is from relatively early in their career, so while it covered most of what I knew, it doesn't pull anything from several albums that follow.  The reason I was listening to it today was because the cable rerun station that is showing episodes of Homicide: Life On The Streets finally showed the episode that had band leader Jim Heath in an acting roll, and includes one of those anthology tunes in the episode.  I know the song well, from the original broadcast, plus its inclusion on my home made soundtrack album.  The problem was, I never heard the song in this new broadcast of the episode.  Heath's appearance is there as a character, but the song wasn't.  I remembered the song playing toward the end of the episode, where there is now a basic instrumental playing.  Was there a rights dispute or something?  When I get a chance, I will look at the episode again and see if I missed it.  Meanwhile, nothing was stopping me from listening to the song on this disc today.  

Bakery part 1

 A new block is up here today, the newest print and the latest in my Too Soon No More series.   This piece is based on my photograph of the well known sign outside the Belmar store (their flagship location) of Freedman's Bakery.  Like all images in this series, the business goes back to the 1950's (even earlier in the case of Vesuvio) but was something I still patronized into the 21st century, and is now gone.  At one point there were smaller stores located in various area beach towns that carried the name and products, but I assume that everything was made at the large Belmar facility.  Those satellite stores are long gone as well, replaced by other bakeries or other businesses.  The Belmar location remained for quite a while, and I used to get breakfast there (a pork roll, egg, and cheese sandwich on a kaiser roll) on days when I dropped my truck off for servicing at the Chevrolet dealer across the street.  

It almost disappeared sooner.  A while back a design/architecture firm had come up with a plan to redo much of Belmar's Main Street, but had two conditions.  One was the ability to build a new location for themselves in the Belmar plaza (I think they got the permission) and the other was to have the Freedman's Bakery building condemned, so they could put something else there.  Problem was, that the person who makes that decision refused to condemn the building.  It was a going business and if the new team wanted it, they had to pay market price.  I guess that was not acceptable, because that design team took off without doing anything, and the decision was made to develop Belmar piecemeal as things came up.  

But I guess the bakery business is not what it was, and it turned out there were some issues with the building, so a while back it was sold and mostly torn down, including a mural on the back of it.  And the town lost another long established landmark.  That Main Street sign was very well known- at least a third of the old photos I found online featured it. It's a classic example of 1950's Googie signage, the kind of thing that would get your attention when it was built, and it remained up until the building was torn down.  (a brewery/brew pub exists there now) The sign itself went to the Belmar Arts Council, which raffled off the "Freedman's" part of it as a fundraiser, and the "BAKERY" letters saved for an unstated future purpose.

I took a photo (above) of the sign (bakery still in operation) as part of research for an old (2010) boardwalk print.  I started by copying that photo (this less cropped version) in pencil on a sketchbook page, cut a piece of wood to the proper size, and decided to set it aside for a while and work on the most recent boardwalk print instead.  But that's now done, so it's time to do this bakery piece.  A few days ago I got a mirror and started copying that sketch onto a piece of birch plywood.  Brought everything home again to compare it to that photo again.  I was home yesterday, so I did that, making adjustments to that paper sketch.  Today I used that updated paper sketch to fix the issues I had on the block.  I think it's ready to start cutting now.  The drawn block can be seen below:

This piece will be colored, so not much black will be in this one.  The colors will match the ones in my original photo, so not much needs to be done on my part, except the drawing, and cutting.  That's why I had to get the drawing right today, as it's the one thing I have to go on as I cut it.

For music today I went with an old favorite from my jazz/blues book, a home burned copy of the Miles Davis album 'Round About Midnight, a 1957 release that seemed appropriate to my subject today.  I've mentioned this on the blog before, but the best write-up is back in August of 2019.  The disc played perfectly well there in the Studio, from start to finish.  About the time it ended, I was done drawing.

More Studio Work

 My plan for today was to start a new print, and I guess that's what I did.  I drove up to the Studio in the late morning, a nice enough day. The first thing I did was pull out an old finished print, my piece about the Circus Drive in from a few years ago.  That's because this next print is part of the same series and I want the sizes of the two vertical prints to match.  I found it, measured it, drew the appropriate frame on the new piece of wood (a prepared sawed block of about the right size), and started the pencil drawing.  My source for this was some pencil sketches I had done from a photo I took of this now gone location.  Today was just a rough sketch, and I want to consult my photo source again, so I brought the block home with me.  In any case, it's not ready to show here yet, so I won't post a photo of it today.  However, I don't want to leave everyone hanging, so here's a photo of something else I was working on today, coloring a proof I took of another old print in this same series, my view of the old Vesuvio restaurant.  I do remember that I used a new color (for me) called New Gamboge (same root that gives use the nation of Cambodia) for the wall, but I don't have access to all my old watercolors.  And I didn't want to buy a whole tube of it for just this one print, so the question was raised- could I make it from what I had?  Gave it a shot.  Mixed some Titanium White, some Naples Yellow, and a touch of Natural Siena.  Maybe not an exact match, but close enough for my purposes:

Today was just yellows and some flesh tones.  A lot more will be needed before I am done, and I don't have a finished copy of the print handy, but I do have good photographs of it on my computer, and that will do for this.

For music today I brought my rock/pop discs and chose my Shonen Knife home burned disc.  It's been more than a year since I wrote on this blog about it, so it's probably been a while since I listened to it.  There are posts about it going back to July of 2019, but I think the best write up of this disc may be what I posted in July of 2023.  I may not understand most of it (you only learn so much Japanese in a year of college), but then as now, good music to make art to.  

Boardwalk Bar- Finished

 Another not too hot day today, maybe thanks to the smoke from Canada, or maybe just the whims of weather.  All I know is that I didn't need the air conditioner in my car, and the Studio was comfortable enough to work in.  When I left off last time I was almost done, just had some touch up to do.  That's what I did today.  Some I planned, like all the very thin lines made with a v-gouge that helped define the trestle over the bar.  A dark gray was used there, something I already had mixed.  However I did spend some time carefully looking over the whole thing and found a bunch more things that could use some touching up. Some not done at all, some getting a going over.  So I ended up adding some white.  And some blue.  And some green.  And some red.  And some pink. And some orange.  And some tan.  And some brown.  And some flesh tones.  But now I think it's done.  For now it's up on the wall.  I'll sign it later.  The photo below shows where it ended up:

I think it is a little better than the practice one.  I know the cutting is a little better.  I took more care with the printing, and the colors are all bolder, except maybe that bright green I had in the practice proof.  The balance still seems to be there.  So next time I am in the Studio, it's to start something new.

For music today I went with something from the jazz/blues book, my home burned (for Texas) disc of Buddy Guy, with all of Stone Crazy and most of Sweet Tea, which I have written about on the blog many times, but the best one is found in February of 2020.  Not unexpectedly, the first song had some problems, but taking out the disc and replacing it solved the problem and it was fine after that.

Boardwalk Bar part 31

 The sun was out again today, and it was hot, but not as hot as tomorrow is expected to be, so a good day to get up to the Studio.  Temperature and humidity inside was fine, so a good time to be working as well.  There was evidence that Molly had been in the space since the last time I was there, but her output didn't affect anything of mine, so not a problem.

Not much left to go on the latest print.  Today I was putting in pinks, reds, and more oranges, plus touching up a few things that I missed the first time.  The result is that it is almost finished.  Next time I'm in I plan to look at it a bit, touch up anything else that needs doing (such as the trestle above the bar, but I had already put my paints away and didn't do it today), and probably declare this thing done.  Meanwhile, here's what it looks like now:

For music today I pulled an old favorite out of my rock/pop book, my home burned disc of the Gun Club, which combines their first album with several songs from a later live album.  (you can read more about this disc back on November of 2019)  My player had issues with one of the early songs, but after removing the disc and restarting it, the whole thing played fine.

Boardwalk Bar part 30

 No bad weather today...yet.  Some rain is predicted for the region in the afternoon, but I plan to be on my way home by then, if not all the way there.  Got to the Studio today and saw a lot of cars in the lot, but also plenty of parking spaces, so no trouble finding one.  Brought my coloring materials in from the car as that is what I planned to work on today.  

What I did today was indeed color, adding yellows, more browns, some grays, and some of the orange.  This was mostly hair and clothing, but also included a few examples of architecture and such.  Again, took my time and care, so I didn't finish today, but no unwanted leaks either.  What remains is more orange, and all the reds and pinks.  Looking at it now, I realize that there is a good chance I have this finished next week and will be ready to move on the next print.  Meanwhile, below is a photo of what I did today:

So far I like what I am seeing.  Colors are slightly simpler this time, a combination of having learned some things from my practice copy, and a desire to simplify my color options as befitting a multi-block woodcut.  This isn't one, but I still think that way.  I am still making sure that any color is used multiple times in spread out locations, providing some balance.  Remaining colors will do the same.

For music today I decided to bring my Billy Childish disc with me, a loose one I have.  It seems I originally made it for my trip to Texas, but as has been written here, none were ever used there but became part of my Studio.  This disc (written about on the blog back in December of 2019 and other places) contains mostly material from a double disc compilation collecting tracks from his long history, plus some songs from a Thee Headcoats album I have.  My player there in the Studio didn't like the home burned disc, especially the early songs, but most of it played fine.  When it ended, it was about time to go home.  Got there without any rain, so it all worked out.

Boardwalk Bar part 29

 At home this morning I had a few concerns.  We had a big rain storm yesterday, and I know some flooding occurs sometimes around the art building and on the way there.  Also I had heard that there had been issues in Ocean Grove with electricity- today still not available in all parts.  However, I decided if I hadn't heard anything declaring that there were problems in the building, I should assume there were not.  And I had received no phone calls or emails telling me there was a problem, so I assumed the building was open, or at least open enough to get into my space.

Still, on the way there this morning I did wonder.  The part of route 35 that passes through Belmar has a history of flooding in heavy rains- I know because I have had to detour around floods a few times on my way to teaching workshops in that town.  However, I figured the rain had stopped by yesterday afternoon and any flooding on the road would have already drained back into the Shark River.  And it was fine.  I also knew that the area on the corner by our building used to flood terribly, but I also knew that they had finally addressed that problem several years ago, and since our building sits up a hill from that intersection, it was unlikely that any floods surrounded our building.  Sure enough, the lot was full and the gates open.  Lights on inside, too, so we had power.  Took the elevator down to the basement.  Saw a few things scattered on the floor and some small puddles near Bobby's studio.  Could there have been a flood in my space?  At least my framed art was off the ground, and everything I have was off the main floor and at least on the raised concrete platforms.  I opened the door to my space and looked inside.  No problems at all- no floods had hit us at all.  Good, time to get to work.

I took my latest proof off the wall, got my watercolors ready, and got to work.  I decided to start today with skin tones, so mixed up some various flesh tones and put them everywhere they needed to be.  Did a little bit of hair and other things as well.  A lot still remains.  I am taking my time with this proof, and so far nothing has leaked to where it shouldn't be.  That means I didn't finish much today, but I'm in no hurry.  Results of today's work can be seen below:

For music today I went with something I heard on the radio on the way there.  Every Beatles fan knows that today is Ringo's birthday, him turning 86 today.  That's even older than me, which makes sense since most of the Beatles history occurred before I was born.  To mark the occasion, the dj on my favored radio station played a Beatle track that Ringo sang on, something from the Help! album.  As it turns out, I have a home burned disc with the Beatles For Sale and Help! albums in my rock/pop book, so that's what I played today.  Had to take it out once and restart it, but otherwise every song played.  If this disc sound familiar, it's because I have written about it before on this blog, such as a mention back in September of 2019.  

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.