Welcome back friends, neighbors, and people who maybe just wandered around the internet until they stumbled onto my blog. I hope you're having a great week. Mine was pretty solid. I went to an awesome gallery talk at the Figge Art Museum last night. The exhibition is Landscape by Ingalena Klenell and Beth Lipman. It lives up to its name as the exhibition turned an entire gallery into a landscape made entirely out of glass. It's absolutely amazing, like walking into a fantasy world. The exhibition runs until May 25th, so if you're in the Quad Cities Area, you should probably go check that out.
Despite the week going fairly well, I'm feeling a little restless as of late. Penned in, so to speak. Life is good, but I guess I can't help but feel a little caged by the day job, the car payment, the rent, etc. There is a part of me that wants to just pack up and roll out and see what's happening in whatever city is just down the road... But, I know that isn't realistic. Or responsible. Or other "R" words that I can't be bothered to think about right now. So, since I won't be packing up the car and taking the printshop on the road, I will channel my cabin-fever into making things. So what is on our creative to-do list?
Well, let's start with Think Digital/Act Analog.
Listen guys, I love this design. I think it's awesome. It looks cool, and the message is pretty on point as far as I'm concerned. So yeah, I love this design. But, it also haunts me because I have yet to complete it. It follows me around, mockingly. So, I am finishing it this weekend. I am making the last changes to the block that will ever be made. It may not be perfect after that, but at this point, I may be letting "perfect" be the enemy of "good." I have easily put 40 hours of effort into this block, so it's time to pull prints and be done with it! No more hauntings.
Next up on my list is Tables Turned. This is another design that has been floating around for awhile now in several incarnations. I pulled some proofs at the beginning of the week, and they look pretty good.
I haven't put nearly as many hours into it as I have Think Digital/Act Analog, but the edits that I need to make on it are pretty minimal that it seems ridiculous not to make those cuts and pull some finished prints. So this is on my list for the weekend too! If I'm particularly efficient, I may get a full run printed before I'm back to work on Monday!
What else can we work on this weekend? Well, there's always In Con We Trust. You may remember it, from the print that I pulled before.
But it wasn't ready. I've thought about lots of different ways to edit the block to get the appearance that I want. Ultimately, however, I decided that I need to take it back to the beginning and cut a new block, making some design changes along the way.
It still needs a little work, but the new design is going to give a more uniform look to the overall image, and should result in a really good print. But first, I need to hammer out a few more details on the design and transfer it to a block. I'll be pretty happy (and incredibly impressed with myself) if I get this done over the weekend!
One of the other designs I have in the mix is of my old cat Luna. She was my best little beastie buddy for 18 years and I miss the little scrappy ball of fur. And thanks to a suggestion from my lovely fiance, I've decided to memorialize my old beast in a new print, based on a panel from my old web-comic.
I've been working on a design that will do my old buddy justice, but I'll admit that the drawing is giving me a lot of trouble, partly because cats curl up in the strangest ways, and partly because Luna was so white that in all my photos it's hard to distinguish any detail. But for a rough idea of the direction I'm heading with this print, here are some of my early sketches...
There are a few other irons in the fire, but if I manage to get through all of the above this weekend then I should definitely quit while I'm ahead and take a break. I'll let you know how that goes.
In other news, if you're on Twitter and you want updates on my printmaking, my day job, any other random stuff that comes my way, and pop-culture references, then please follow me (@CaptGam). I love to interact, so please don't be shy about tweeting at me or hitting up the comments section here. I'm friendly and love to talk about, well, pretty much anything, so I hope to hear from you.
So everybody, keep on keeping on. Enjoy your weekend, and don't be a stranger!
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