Lost in transition

My search for a place to live and work here in Maine continues. It has been a frustrating process, but my friend Sue encourages me to stay calm. “Maine challenges you the first year,” she says, “to test your resolve.”

Okay, Maine. Bring it. 

There have been several bright spots lately, though!

Green Lion Gallery

The Green Lion Gallery in Bath. This gorgeous space is owned and nurtured by artist/printmaker David Morgan. The Green Lion represents mostly (but not only) printmakers and artists who create work on paper. The space has a great vibe, and it has an Ettan press in the back. Dave was kind enough to offer me some press time a couple of weeks ago, and I managed to create three small (4x6”) blocks. I printed on 300# watercolor paper and then hand-painted them. I was reasonably pleased with the results AND the feeling of shaking out a few cobwebs. 

Green Lion Gallery

New linos!

Inspiration for the new images was the March 11 Mass Audubon Birders Meeting in Boston. It’s still a bit surreal to me to realize that I can now drive to Boston in about the same amount of time it took me to drive from Salida to Denver. The scenery is certainly different, and the traffic once one hits Boston is worse (which hardly seems possible), but it's totally doable. 

Linocuts all set up and ready for visitors at the Birders Meeting

The Birders Meeting is a one-day event, but I arrived a little early and stayed a little late to have the opportunity to catch up with colleagues and friends at the Museum of American Bird Art at Mass Audubon. 

Evening comes to MABA

MABA is a small museum with a big heart and a collection that packs a big punch. Part of the reason for my early arrival was an opportunity to hear Paul and Alan Singer, the sons of artist Arthur Singer, speak about their father's work. The brothers have recently released a comprehensive and lovely book celebrating Arthur Singer's life and career, and MABA hosted the lecture, book signing, and an exhibit of some of Singer's original works.

Additionally, the museum's current main exhibition is "Waterbirds," featuring paintings, prints, and sculpture from their permanent collection. Selections include work from Audubon to Warhol... bird art aficionados will also drool over pieces by Frank Benson, Sir Peter Scott, Don Eckelberry, Barry Van Dusen, Keith Shackleton, Anne Faust... and my design hero Frances Lee Jaques. It's remarkably difficult to find a centralized online location for Jaques' work, but trust me, you need to Google for images. The paintings are nice, but the black and white illustrations will knock your socks off. (The Jaques Art Center in Minnesota has a little blurb about him, but not many images.)

Nubble Light at Cape Neddick, Maine

On my way home from Boston I stopped at the Nubble Lighthouse / Cape Neddick in southern Maine. The day was windy and cold, alternating between bright sun and clouds, but I was on a mission! I had heard the Cape could be a place to find dovekie, a cute little auk which I had never seen. I identified two other life birds, thick-billed murre and black scoter, before I finally spotted the stubby little critter bobbing around offshore. I snapped a couple of photos that were horribly distant and blurry but contained enough information to later confirm the ID. Hooray!

Yes. Dovekie has entered the queue for new linos.

The next day we had our third nor'easter in less than two weeks, with our second blanket of about 20 inches of snow. Enough already!

So what next? I'm still on the hunt for home and studio, but life and work have to move forward no matter what. April 19th I'll be presenting a program at the Camden Library for Midcoast Audubon. Also, registration is now open for a leather journal-making workshop at the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland, April 27. Also in April, I'll have some work presented by the Green Lion Gallery at the Boston Print Fair. I'm also deep in image design for posters for the International Loon / Diver Symposium coming up in Portland in 2019. I may be unsettled, but I'm certainly not bored!

Fieldwork...ummm... Fourth?

So here I am, less than 48 hours from departure for several teaching gigs on the east coast. The to-do list is FINALLY in the single digits (although it keeps wavering up a few tasks and then coming back down again), and my house is a riot of indecisive packing. I have only two small "carry-on"-sized suitcases and six weeks of gear to take for multiple events. Last week I shipped two small boxes of workshop materials... and it looks like tomorrow I'll have to ship one more. Ooph.

Yesterday, however, I was feeling secure enough about my available time (prematurely, it turns out) to take a little hike up a favorite local trail, Greens Creek. It's lovely and lush in there right now, and we got out early enough that my friend and I were headed back down the trail before we encountered the steady stream of weekend adventurers.

The hike inspired some field sketches of blooming flora.... hooray! It's been too long.

I intended to create the aforementioned sketches in my journal before I realized I didn't have a current one! I did the little watercolors on loose sheets and then spent all last evening making a new journal for them. Because I have time for that sort of thing right now.

New pages, new journal. Embiggenable with a click.

The good news is that by taking time to do some fieldwork and build a new journal I feel more like myself than I have in a long time. The less-good news is that it might mean I don't get another color on the lino before I leave. But going back to the good news: I'm close enough to departure that I've almost reached that "no-more-time-let-it-all-go" stage. Almost.

I didn't just build a new book, I built a PRETTY new book.

The leather needs to relax a bit, but since it's about to get crushed in a suitcase I'm not worried.

Is it any wonder I got inspired?

Greens Creek, or Green Creek, or Green's Creek, depending on which map you consult.

In the high desert, lush riparian areas like this are just YUMMY.
It rained the night before, so everything looked extra-rich.

Still here... sort of

I see that my last post had to do with being somewhat overwhelmed. Clearly I haven't gotten past that sensation, since two weeks have somehow evaporated. Poof.

A few items have been ticked off my list, a few new ones have been added. I had to change my mind about hand delivering work to the Shy Rabbit Print International in Pagosa Springs because until yesterday the road between here and there was closed by the West Fork wildfires. That piece went into a crate and out the door on Friday. Today my piece for Birds in Art headed the opposite direction, towards Wisconsin. Tomorrow a box of materials will head out to Maine for imminent adventures in teaching at Hog Island Audubon Camp.

I'm getting to know my local shipping agent pretty well this week.

Needless to say, there isn't much printing going on. This past weekend we enjoyed our annual Salida ArtWalk... I talked to lots of linocut admirers and am pleased to report that a couple of pieces have gone on to new homes. (No shipper involved THIS time.)

But a girl has to do SOMETHING besides admin or she'll go a bit bonkers, so last night I set about making a new journal.

And WHY did I have to make a new journal? Because the one I had more than half filled with sketches and travel notes went on walkabout at O'Hare Airport in May. Yep. Lost.

On my way home from my residency at the Woodson Art Museum I had to change planes in the madhouse that is Chicago. In the hour I was there our gate assignment changed FOUR times, and it was during the last migration that I stopped by the restroom and apparently set down my book. When I returned to the gate the plane was boarding, and it wasn't until I was in my seat that I discovered my journal missing. The flight attendant overheard my dismay and astonishingly encouraged me to get off the plane and run back to find it... but in those few minutes it had disappeared.

I filed a lost item report when I got home, but of course nothing ever came of it. I was fairly certain my email address, at least, was written in the book... but... it's off having adventures without me now.

It took me a while to drum up the courage to build a new one... but here it is. All ready to see what happens next. I'm thinking of chaining it to my backpack while I'm in transit, though. Or maybe I should wear it around my neck...

Journals and Journal workshops

Yes, we're still at warp speed around here. Next week I'm off to teach field sketching workshops at the Crested Butte Wildflower Festival, and the week after I'm headed to Hog Island Audubon Camp in Maine as an instructor for Educators' Week. More field sketching and more illustrated journals.

But I'll let you in on a guilty secret. For reasons I haven't been able to sort out, I haven't personally had a designated field journal in service since the end of last year.

I have other journals. One for just making notes and lists about tasks. One that serves as a sort of personal grousing forum and occasional repository of sketches and image ideas. A tiny one that I stick in my pocket when I go for walks– I use it to record birds I've seen or ideas that pop into my head while I'm walking.

But no nature journal per se.

Huh.

Journals in progress

Part of the problem has been that I like to make my own journals, and I've been undecided about format, page size, and paper type. There's no paper that I've found that's perfect for all applications in my journal. I like a bound book, but I also like the freedom of loose sheets. I just couldn't make up my mind.

So this past weekend I decided I didn't have to make up my mind. Exactly. Yes, I built a journal with a sewn binding, but I also used the "leftover" paper to create a set of loose sheets for those times when I don't want to lug my journal around. I used four different papers. Two different sizes. A non-decision decision. My best kind.

The impetus was the crazy, fire-plagued summer we're experiencing here in Colorado and most of the western US. Even though the largest fires are thankfully far from us, they're impacting everyone in ways large and small. Somehow it seemed wrong not to acknowledge these weeks, so even before I had the clasp built for the book I recorded an impression from the many photos and video clips of the many blazes.

Of course now that I have a book started, I can't wait to get out and fill it. Funny how that works. It's a good thing I've got all these workshops coming up, eh?

If it's Thursday...

Prints and paraphernalia accumulating... must mean a show is imminent.

Times like this it feels as though I'll never get to print again. The last few weeks have been taken up by epic contract jobs, workshop and exhibition prep, and unending administrative details. Several times in the last few days I've heard myself grimly muttering that old joke about the light at the end of the tunnel and oncoming trains.

This morning, however, I suddenly found myself with a small window of unscheduled time. I finished the 14th of 16 (!) current illustrations and got the scan organized for the project designer... and then realized that the 350mb file was going to take almost two hours to upload to the server. It's possible to do other computer work while a huge upload is underway, but the risk of disaster looms if I forget myself and start too much multitasking. (If you've ever had an upload abort after an hour, you know what I mean.) Walking away from the computer seemed like the best plan.

Two hours! Just enough time to make a few little books.

If you've followed Brush and Baren for a while you might remember when I scored a stack of wooden cigar boxes from a friend. My favorites were snug little almost-cubes about 5 x 5 x 6 inches in size– perfect for collections of small notebooks.

I always put a small notebook in my pocket when I take a walk. One never knows when insight or inspiration will strike, or when an unfamiliar bird will defy identification unless I can jot down field marks. The last book in the previous set was filled more than a week ago and I've been forced to write on my hand ever since.

Starting to fill a new box with little books!

But now I've got 5 new little notebooks in a new box and all seems right with the world again.

And not a moment too soon. This weekend I'm off to Denver to hang my exhibition, "Intimate Landscapes," at the Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado headquarters in Washington Park. The opening reception is Sunday from 4-8pm, and I'm really pleased that I won't be extending a list-festooned hand to welcome visitors. (Like you, perhaps?)

Insider information

The ink is still a little wet to add the next color on the current linocut, so I'm spending some overdue time with my Etsy store, Rio Salida Art, this weekend. A little primping, a little tweaking, and a little adding of a couple slightly larger pieces to the shop now that I've figured out a good way to ship them.

Blog readers get the inside scoop: For the next two weeks (or until I sell the copies I have), both of my handmade sketchbook collections are $5 off. Just thought you should know.

Book Building Binge

The schedule gods smiled on me the last couple of days, and I found myself with enough time to fill a biggish order for hand-built books "Flora and Fauna" and "Living on the Edge." Both of these titles I originally built to finance back-to-back projects: an expedition for the Artists for Nature Foundation and an artist residency at Acadia National Park. Almost four years and 400 individually constructed books later, I'm still building them! Time for a new volume, don't you think?

At any rate, yesterday I printed, trimmed and collated the "guts" of 12 books, and today I built covers and assembled the finished books. Feels good to have that task done, since it gives me enough inventory to fill the order AND have some on hand to sell at the Salida Farmer's Market on August 1. Hm. And have on hand to fill orders in the Etsy store. Hmmm and hmmmm. Perhaps I should build a couple more.

Art (Sleep-) Walking

Hooray! We survived another great Salida Art Walk weekend.. tired, but happy.

Earlier in the week Roberta Smith, Lisa DeYoung and I set up a display of handmade books at our local independent addiction-feeder, The Book Haven. Once we figured out what we were doing with our assortment of books and book-making gear, we put together what we all felt was an attractive collection. Unfortunately I could never get a photo through the window that didn't have the rest of town reflected as well, so you'll have to take my word for it from this image taken inside the store.


Proprietor Lisa Marvel invited me to hang some linocuts in the shop, as well. Recognize that crazy thing over the piano?


To complete the ensemble, the DM played for a few hours at the store yesterday afternoon, and promptly sold all of the CDs he brought with him. This afternoon we popped in again, and heard the disc playing on the shop sound system. Very nice!


I sold a couple of linos and a leather journal, so we're both pleased with the weekend results. Several friends from the Front Range made surprise appearances, which made the weekend extra fun. Now if we can just recover some sleep.

Not too likely, since this time next week I'll be heading off for five days of workshop teaching at the Crested Butte Wildflower Festival. I think the Field Sketching I sections are both sold out, but last time I checked there were a couple of spots left in the "II" class, and in the leather journal-making class. Come on up! We've had so much rain this month that the wildflowers ought to be spectacular.

This means, naturally, that there's a whole lot of gear-switching and task finishing coming up this week. AND, in the "of-course-it-would-happen-NOW" category, the DM came home between gigs yesterday to discover a large chunk of the guest room ceiling lying on the floor. It's a long story involving a plaster patch administered before we moved in. Let's just say it didn't hold and add it to the "to do" list. (sigh)

But don't despair... guess what THIS is:


Yup. In-progress drawing for a new complicated linocut. Life is good.

Holiday puttering

We started to dry out today from our lovely, crazy four days of rain. The DM and I tackled what yard chores we could (did the grass REALLY grow six inches in four days?), put the finishing touches on the cover for the new CD (possibly going off to production tomorrow!), and participated in obligatory firing-up of the grill for Memorial Day supper.

In between all of that, I finished building two and a half new leather journals. Yippee! Probably they will make their way to the Etsy store in the next few days. Book building will probably be a little more common in the next few weeks, as I'm gearing up for display and presentation of book arts miscellany at The Book Haven during Salida ArtWalk. It's always satisfying to see a shelf of freshly-made journals just waiting to be filled!

Burning Questions

Everyone wants to know how many mini books can fit in a mini cigar box, right?

The answer is precisely ten.


Next go around (because, yes, I have more boxes!) I think I'm going to face the books spine up and make slightly wider, harder-bound books with actual write-on-able spines. But sadly it won't be today, as contract duty calls. (Byway interp panels are in their last go-round and scheduled to go off for fabrication tomorrow. Naturally this means I changed a whole bunch of things around yesterday.)

Anyway... I put the first mini book in my pocket and went off for my morning walk yesterday. Aside from slowing forward momentum due to irresistible urge to write down everything that came to mind, it worked great. Each book has 20 pages, so I figure I can get 9-10 days worth of notes in each one. That's 2 weeks of walk notes per book, since I don't go every day. Times 10 books.... I'm set all the way until autumn migration!

Sidetracked

Okay, so I haven't yet gotten to the intended linocut work today, but it's not my fault. Really! Blame friend Michael, who has kindly been supplying both the DM and I with some really groovy cigar boxes. (It's not Michael who is emptying aforementioned boxes, BTW. He's just the conduit.)

David's making banjos (sorry, still in development stage, so no pics yet) with the nice, low, rectangular wooden (!) boxes, but yesterday we received some really nifty small, squarish ones. OOOH! I knew JUST what I wanted to do with one: Make a box of mini books!

In the interest of full disclosure, I'm, err... reinterpreting... an idea I saw somewhere else, which involved little books shaped like file folders. How can one resist filling a little box with little books?


The box itself is just 5.75" x 4.25" x 4.5". The little books are about 3.5" x 5" (closed). Perfect size to stick in my pocket when I go for a walk. Usually I just scribble my notes in little spiral notebooks, but how much more fun will it be NOW?



I haven't quite figured out what I'm going to do inside the box cover, nor how to deal with the debossed writing on the outside, and I expect much scowling and lip-biting will ensue. Or not.

I'm still planning to get a lino started tonight. The DM went to the doctor yesterday and was pronounced "mending," so we're much relieved. He's back to poking around in the studio, alternating with periods of web surfing or sofa sitting. He also made supper tonight, which around here means we're eating much better again. Whew!

What week? Revisited

Darn fingers on the keyboard. Previous post suffered from premature exposure, and before I could correct it, Jeff labeled it haiku! Can't very well change it NOW, can I? **

(**The previous post went away, so now you will all be confused by this statement. Except Jeff. Who will wonder where the haiku went. Never mind.)

It's been one of those weeks. The DM remains very much under the weather... I've been scrambling to get projects done... and suddenly it's Saturday night and I wonder what exactly happened to the week.

As proof that something productive is happening, here are two proofs of the nine new Collegiate Peaks Byway interpretive panels going off to fabrication next week. I'll still waiting on one photo and committee comments, but soon this project will be off to the next step. Hooray!


Also got the scans back for the sagebrush poster for Audubon-Wyoming, so I can get that wrapped up next week, too. Double hooray!

Now three more panels for a fish habitat improvement project in Cañon City, two for a state wildlife area, and... wait... there's more!

But not tonight.

I did take a little time out for fun today (AFTER getting blood drawn at the Health Fair). Our local library (the best in the universe, in my humble opinion) sponsored a bookmaking workshop, so I went off to see what tidbits I could glean from someone else's presentation. We worked with bookcloth, which was new for me, and instead of PVA or paste we used heavy-duty (supposedly archival) double-stick adhesive sheets. Huh. Interesting. Nice, clean adhesion and no mess. We'll see how it holds up...

Anyway, I have a little green book now, AND a new target on my List of Places to Go Next Time I Go to the City. Denver Bookbinding. Probably another one of those places where I'll need someone else along to hold my checkbook.

That's pretty much the news here. Most of my "spare" energy has been devoted to fending off whatever nasty crud has such a firm hold on the DM. Successful so far... keep your fingers crossed!

How to celebrate finishing a project

Start another one, of course!

I've recently started playing with little accordion book forms, and last night I made my first attempt at gelatin prints. Put the two together, and viola! The Houseplant Book.

"Underfoot," pine cone lino hanging in the background.

Sorry. Blurry cover image.

Now we're getting somewhere!

It was another morning for printing linocuts in pajamas, and it was a good one! Finally we can start to see that I am not completely off base here.

It's difficult to see in this image that this was actually color #8 for this print so far: light blue, 2 grays, yellow, 2 oranges, and pale green came before this brownish bit. At this point I'm after 3 more colors in 2 passes. Keep your fingers crossed, eh?


I'm hoping to get the whole thing finished during the week ahead. Hard to predict, since I'm quite busy with eleven (!) interp panels (an assortment of writing, illustration, and design), a poster illustration, several spot illustration jobs, and a workshop to teach next Saturday. Yikes. Best I don't think about it too much.

As for the workshop... it's a quick little half day adventure in beginning book making. We'll make a stab-bound book (like this except with blank pages) and I'll provide all the materials, 1:00-4:00pm, March 14, here in Salida at the library. Such a deal for only $32. More information and registration available through GARNA, the Greater Arkansas River Nature Association.

Off to clean up the table to make room for the next task.

Starting to hunker down....

Summer is officially gone, and autumn hasn't been looking that robust, either. It's been COLD the last few days-- in the 20s F at night and in the 40s F during the day. It's even been gray and cloudy, and on Saturday we actually had RAIN. (First time since August.) The high peaks are decidedly white with snow.

I've been managing with just a space heater in the studio, loathe to turn on the heat in the house, but today the radiators clanged to life for the first time since we moved in last May.

The lamp in the living room is on a timer. Lately it hasn't been coming on early enough to beat the darkness.

I can barely drag myself out of bed by 7:00am. In the summer I'm easily awake before 6:00. Last night at 8:00pm I was ready to go to bed.

Yes, indeedy. Change is not only a'comin'. It's here.

Life has been ridiculously -- wonderfully -- busy and full since the DM arrived at the end of April, but lately we've been looking at each other and declaring how much we're going to enjoy being home and quiet for a while. We've one more out-of-town jaunt next week, to rendezvous with Ohio friends on the CO/UT border, but then no real plans until spring. I'm sure something will come up, but right now we're happily making soups and stews and stocking up on hot chocolate and reading material in anticipation of some quality hunkerin' down time.

The last few days I've been enjoying some time to build books. These little stab-bound volumes are hand-built collections of bits and pieces from my sketchbooks- the first ("Flora and Fauna") contains random field sketches and studies, the second ("Living on the Edge") is a gathering of sketches made during a two-month journey from Colorado to Holland to New York to Maine and back again. Like a lot of good things, they started out as a small idea and mushroomed for a time into something only barely manageable. These days the production pace is a little more sedate.


Building books requires a clearing of the studio tables to make room for trimming and collating and stacking and gluing and sewing, so it typically requires goodly stretches of time. HA! We all know how often THOSE happen. But since a considerable percentage of my compatriots enjoyed a holiday yesterday (no such thing for the self-employed, eh?) it's been quiet in the client department since Friday.

We're also gearing up to build some blank books. A few years ago my friend Andie Thrams taught me to make lovely little journals with soft leather covers. I've filled several of them myself, but I also build them for others, and it's time to make more. Not long ago I taught the DM to make his own, and he's anxious to be involved in this next construction phase. New endpapers arrived in the post today, so I've trimmed them down and we're ready to start assembly. I think tonight after supper we'll be folding signatures.

I'm sure things will pick up again tomorrow, but I have found it really refreshing to have a few days to work at a thoughtful pace. It's lovely to feel ideas come out of the cramped corners of my otherwise static-filled head and stretch their legs for a bit. Will there be more of this soon? Oooooh. I sure hope so.

All's well that begins well

Right about the time I decided I ought to give the yard a little water, we got a downpour. (Complete with small hail.) I'll take the culminating light show as a good omen for the journey ahead. We're off to Santa Fe in the morning (yup, the DM gets to come along on this one), where I am pleased to be doing an inservice for all of the elementary art teachers in the Santa Fe School District. Wow! Very cool. We'll sketch and journal and even make the stab bound books I described here once upon a time. Back on Sunday, see you then!

A delicate stabbing

I had a couple of queries about the binding of the sketchbooks (all finished now, hooray!), so I thought I'd give a quick explanation. If a clamor for more detailed (read: actually decipherable) instructions ensues, then I'll try to be articulate about it.

Exhibit A: "Flora and Fauna"

This particular style of page gathering is called "Japanese stab binding." The interior pages are straight cut sheets rather than folded signatures. The stitching goes straight down through the covers and pages, but a clever little hinge device allows you to still open the silly thing.

In this case my book "guts" are 8.5" x 5.5" sheets, a US standard page cut in half, so the dimensions I give for the cover parts will give you something slightly larger than that.

The covers are not complicated. I've done a version of this construction with grade school kids... although an adult at the drill was imperative. I'm going to post the handout for the "kid journal" construction... I do a few more steps to make a nicer presentation, but you get the idea.

For each book:

2 pieces of mat or book board, .75" x 6" (the spine)
2 pieces of mat or book board, 7.75" x 6" (the body)
2 pieces of cover paper (I'm using acid-free "scrapbooking" sheets for production, but you can use anything.) 9" x 12"
2 pieces of "end paper" for the inside, 5.5" x 7.5"
I reinforce my hinges with linen tape, but it's not completely necessary.


So.... you can follow the kid steps above, but my extra steps are here:

Step 1.5... NOT included in the kid version: This is where you can add the linen tape, across the gap. Also trim the excess paper from the corners before folding up for a nicer finish. (See below)


Step 3.5: For kids I use a 5.5 x 8.5 endpaper and they just glue it smack in the middle. This works okay, but adds bulk in the hinge and doesn't necessarily fold back in an attractive way when you open the book. SO. I gave you dimensions for a shorter end paper. This shorter paper does NOT cross the gap or cover the area where the spine is. The thing to remember here is to leave more cover paper at the spine end when you glue the boards down so you have more to fold over on that end. Otherwise your short endpapers won't cover the exposed board. Capice?

Step 4+: This style of book leaves the spine open. I wrap a little piece of cover paper around the edges of the pages at the spine end to make it look a little more finished. (Plus it seems to add a little stability.) Like this:

A piece of double stick tape will hold the spine wrap in place while you stack everything together and clip it.

I'm stitching my books together with ribbon, but waxed yarn or thread or floss works great, too.

Clear as mud? Good. Now go make books.

Shhh! It's a surprise!

I was able to change tack a little today to work on a project for A Secret Entity.

A couple of years ago I started producing little handmade books of my sketches. I have two titles out just now, one a collection of miscellaneous flora and fauna and the other sketches from an epic journey.

A few weeks ago the art administrator at A School District Which Shall Remain Nameless But Is In A Nearby State contacted me about purchasing a copy of the "Flora and Fauna" book for every elementary school art teacher in her sphere! This thoughtful nurturer of teachers wished our efforts to be a surprise, so for now the district will remain anonymous. She's procuring a bunch of lovely things for her teachers, and it's nice to know I'm going to be part of a "teacher appreciation" package. It's something I suspect doesn't happen in too many school districts.

After this it's back to interp panels for a while. And maybe I'll sneak in the start of another new lino. One never knows.

Anyway, I'm about done building these 25 books (!) Just another couple of hours tomorrow and the project will be done. Hooray!