Saturday, February 27, 2010

The exciting bits (not)

Most of this past week I've been obliged to give my attention to contract assignments and exhibition preparations. Not the most glamorous way to spend time, but there you have it. Next week, even LESS glamorously, it's time to settle down and work on (choke) taxes. I'd like to blame my late start on my clients, some of whom have still neglected to send me their paperwork, but that's only the income portion of the headache. The outgo portion I've known about all along, just haven't wanted to face it. (sigh) My one consolation is that I've put what I hope will be a better system in place for 2010. We'll see.


As a reward for being semi-responsible I took some time last night to glue up a couple more tiny blocks and trim some paper. (Also not glamorous, come to think of it.) I would like to get two more tiny pieces done in the next couple of weeks while I'm trying to decide on the next course of action for larger pieces. Yes, yes... I know I've been saying I'm on the verge of working larger for what? A month? Imagine me pacing the edge of a cliff, waiting to jump in to the void......

Part of the problem is that I suddenly have too many ideas in one respect, and too few in another. There's a Big Deal exhibition deadline approaching for which I'd like to submit a piece to jury, but the show has a theme and I have no inspiration for the theme. It's a good guess that this is why I haven't tried to submit since the last time I was in the show, more than 10 (!) years ago. There are a lot of reasons why I'd like to get back in to this particular loop, but OOPH. It's just elusive.

In the meantime, I've got a backlog of ideas for the "underfoot" linocut series. I mean, come ON... when I'm finding insane stuff like THIS when I go for a walk.....


What's not to love about trying to carve dried grass in snow, I ask you? Think of the hair pulling! The nail biting! The cursing and swearing and questioning of my sanity! Geez. I can't wait.

Come on, admit it. Given a choice between carving little bits of grass and filling out a spreadsheet, which would YOU rather do?

5 comments:

  1. that's a no brainer
    who wouldn't rather carve dried grass than deal with expletive numbers?

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  2. Definitely a no-brainer! (The Man deals with all that stuff. I make coffee ;-) )

    I'd like to ask - what glue do you use on your blocks? I have never glued my lino to sub-strate, but am thinking of it.

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  3. ... the hair pulling! The nail biting! The cursing and swearing and questioning of my sanity!

    All good reasons, to be sure. But think of the thrill of sorting out your receipts.

    No, I can't even fake sincerity on that one. Carve grasses. There is no other option.

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  4. def. the grass, no question. just don't bite your nails too much ;)

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  5. I KNEW I could count on all of you to validate my preferences. Thank you.

    Idle... I use regular wood glue to adhere lino to pressboard. (I think they call it MDF now... it's compressed sawdust.) I used to work on unmounted lino, but I had too many adventures with folding and cracking of old lino if it bent while I was carving. I like a mounted block much better. Plus it fits in my jig at just the right height.

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Linocut in Progress: The Third Act

Time to wrap up this linocut ! And we are wrapping at warp speed (see what I did there?)... because there are deadlines. Exhibition deadline...