Fantastic concert by PJ Harvey and John Parish last night at the Minnesota Zoo Amphitheater (it has another name, but I don't remember it...) The drive there and back made for a rather long weekend, but it was worth it. Outdoors, next to a lovely little lake, awesome music, good company....
Second week in the print shop.
And the prints are stacking up,
and up,
and up.
Still all works-in-progress, but I am pleased!
The one thing on my daily to-do list that I hate to miss. And the one thing the rain is keeping my from these last couple of days...
It feels like years since I've been inside a real printshop, printing... and well, it has been over a year since I've worked on these collograph plates. Yesterday (thanks to my obsessive schedule-making) I finally got myself into the USD Printshop and started cranking out some new work that will supplement the work I've got scheduled to exhibit over the next couple of years. It's a fairly good-sized body of work, but I've really been wanting to make it a little bit bigger...
Oh, and here's my first attempt at making a pressed cheese! I'm very excited about it... it's currently in brine, magically becoming feta cheese!
It probably doesn't seem like I've been up to much around here. On the contrary, there is so much going on (and so much going to be going on) that my head is already swimming. This is typically the feeling I have around the end of August, when the school year is around the corner - not at the beginning of summer.
It's pretty obvious that I've developed a gesso obsession. I haven't found much yet that doesn't seem like it would be absolutely perfect with a coat of white gesso over it...
a curio shelf...
a plastic figurine of Mary, and a horse's head...
book blocks and matryoshka dolls...
snail shells, and many other things to numerous to list here.
Today's harvest: asparagus and oregano. Not pictured: dandelion greens - but what to do with them?
The beautiful, blooming tree outside my studio window.
And some old work that I am attempting to make new; i.e. rework.
Every year, the fifth graders in Vermillion partake in an educational activity called "The Wax Museum". Students choose an historical figure to learn more about, and to represent, in the annual "Wax Museum" event. My youngest boy chose to do Mohandas K. Gandhi (at his mother's urging:)).
It's such a surprising contrast between these two boys now - with hair, and without.
Still working on grading papers...
but the day was much too gorgeous to stay inside!
I did get into my studio for awhile, to play a bit,
and took a quick jaunt to the Civic Council (thrift store), where I scored these two very cool items, and more.
Meet Frank and Lola. Frank is my relief press, and Lola is my little baby etching press.
