Check one mini task off the list

Whoo-eee!  It's FINALLY nice enough to have the studio windows open today! The neighborhood is infested with evening grosbeaks and yellow warblers, their songs and chatter more entertaining without a glass filter. Why, I can even hear the serenade of crickets!

WHY am I indoors?

It's the sort of day that makes it painful to stay indoors, but stay in the studio I must. Most of the week has been given over to a big illustration project, but even when I set down my brush to take a break there are plenty of other tasks at hand. Surely Murphy recognized weeks like this and wrote some sort of pithy aphorism about inevitable simultaneous deadlines... but at the moment it eludes me.

I AM nearly a week ahead of the Salida ArtWalk "Mini Masterpiece" deadline, however. Surely that's good for a bonus point or two.

Each June local artists donate "mini" artworks for a fundraising auction during ArtWalk weekend. Through a series of unfortunate events that would make even Lemony Snicket cringe, I have never participated in previous Mini shows. This year, however, I had canvas and entry form in hand in plenty of time.

Wait. Did I say canvas?

Yeah. Canvas. The auction committee provides 4x4- or 4x6-inch stretched canvases for the work... a wee bit perplexing for a diehard works-on-paper gal like me. Thankfully some friends requested I mount a small linocut on canvas a few months ago and that successful experiment made me brave enough to try again.

Where's my baren? My brayer?

Like most printmakers, I've got a drawer full  of "failed" prints. Bad registration, bad color, uneven printing... whatever. They're no good as editions... but one never knows when they might come in handy as collages.

So here's my entry for the "Mini Masterpiece" auction. Bits of four different linos are here, representing four seasons. A little PVA, a little paint, a little varnish, and voila! One deadline checked off the list.

I now return me to my regularly scheduled drawing board.

"Seasonal," linocut collage on canvas, 4x4 inches