Invisible Threat

The Paper Panic

I’ve been in and out of the studio for the last two weeks, still struggling with the issues I’ve been having with my Doll Head series. If you read ‘a serious departure’ you can see the change in the prints over time. The water color simply won’t come off the darn plates anymore. Anyway, I was slowing closing the edition of my 'Forgotten Aunt' print, the largest I’ve done in a while and I had to order a 100 pack of Rives BFK straight from the US distributor. The paper was dumped unceremoniously by the FedEx Ground jerk that delivered it and rescued from sticky fingers by Greg. Luckily, the paper was so thoroughly packaged that nothing was damaged and I began tearing sheets of it down to size.
I’d torn 6 sheets before a sudden panic struck me in the throat. This new paper seemed lighter and thinner than the stock pile of paper I’d been using since my senior year at Purchase. I pulled out the prints I had left on my drying rack and laid them out next to the new paper. Heart fluttering in panic and mind rampant with all of the consumer reports about corporations making they’re products smaller without changing the price, I flipped the paper about. I could feel a clear weight difference between them. The old stuff had to be nearly an ounce heavier than the new. Maybe I had gotten a bad batch, maybe I had ordered the wrong grade of paper? How could I edition a suite with varying paper weights? Panic. Panic. Panic. I’d already torn 6 pages I couldn’t demand a refund! Panic...
Then the light bulb went on.
The new paper was vacuum sealed and freshly opened. The old paper had been sitting out in the studio for months. The old paper was heavier, but not from manufacturing. It had absorbed all the water from humidity in the basement! How could I have missed this important element? It was a week later at the Blue Door Gallery Heritage opening that I realized in another light bulb moment that the same humidity that made my paper heavy was the only thing different in the studio. Therefore, it was the only logical reason for my Doll Heads not to be printing!
The moral of our story; never underestimate the power of environmental factors! Keep a barometric and temperature gauge in your studio space if you are a printer. And get a dehumidifier.

The June Flood

Thought I'd post a few pics from the 4th flood, since it happens every 4th month. I think the pic on the far right would make a god painting, don't you?

And the moral of the story is.....

Blue Door Gallery

I’m very excited to say that I will be showing three (count ‘em 3) of my prints in the “Inspired by Heritage” show at Blue Door in Yonkers. I was caught completely off guard by the acceptance letter. After months of regular rejection I had hardly even summoned the flutter of anxious tummy butterflies when seeing the notification in my inbox. Upon reading that all of my entries would be required for the exhibition I leapt up from my seat and did a Snoopy dance in the library stacks.
After the initial explosive joy wore down a bit the panic set in. Here is the moral of my story for anyone just starting out. For the love of whomever you pray to, don’t send images of proofs or of work you haven’t made gallery ready out to open calls!
Why? Because those few pieces will be the ones that are accepted!
Explanation; I had only just perfected the printing method for my new series (Attic Cameos) and only pulled 5 proofs of a piece called Forgotten Aunt. Carried away by the excitement of having a new series after a month of stalemates, I sent images of it to the ‘Heritage’ open call. When I received notice of acceptance I discovered I had one week to wrangle frames for the odd dimensions of two of the entries. After five hours on my knees with a mat cutter in the emptied apt we were moving out of and the only 2 sheets of whitish acid-free matt board I could get a hold of I seriously considered how underpaid framers are. I was only just able to get the proof and other prints set properly before setting off in the pouring rain on a 2 hour commute to Yonkers. I’m rather pleased to say that while I was soaked through the work was perfectly safe in the reused framers plastic from other work I’d had done a year ago.
There’s a mini lesson right there, I never throw away plastic bags, bubble wrap or clean cardboard and it saved my chochskies this time around. So recycle repurpose reuse peoples!

Storm drains should not, ideally, drain into the house.

In May I had a total shut down of art. Couldn't seem to make any of my prints work and so, I changed direction and started in one my Collagraphs. Then it started raining...
This was the 4th leak in the basement studio since we moved in last Nov. I was so angry. And then I was a bit worn out. Then I spent the next 3 weeks rearranging my studio and it's hundreds of pounds of paper and shelving so they could fix the leak. Then I felt defeated.
It's hard dealing with the constant set backs that come attached to being an artist, but I had to step back and remember that it's all one big package. Shortly after the mouldy water wave-o-destruction, I proofed the first of my new series; the Attic Cameos. After that I was accepted into the 'Inspired by Heritage' show at Blue Door in Yonkers.
Ironically, I had to deliver the 3 pieces in the pouring rain and spent Sunday last soaked to the skin. It 'has a kinda' poetry to it' as Zoey might say.
Moral of our story? When it rains it pours, and that's not so bad.