Hot Off The Spoon!

Yahoo!  I've been working on this print series solid since I got off the plane on March 1st. Today was the big reveal. It was finally time to do a print run. Working in relief printing is interesting for a bunch of reasons. And, a person really has time to ponder those reasons when they're head down over a set of linoleum tiles for 9 days solid. First of all you're working backwards all the time, like in a mirror.  You draw, transfer, carve, ink the plate, lay the paper down and gently rub each print into existence with a wooden spoon without ever being able to see how it's coming. You can't see what it'll look like until you pull the paper off the inked plate, when it's totally done.  I love that moment. Each print emerges with its own unique character. It reminds me of the doctor saying 'It's a boy!' after all those hours of labour.  You look at your new creation and think 'yep, that was worth it all'. 

Sarah came in and took these pics, then we went out in the dark to do a photo shoot with her amazing headdresses. She strapped each piece onto my head, wrapped me in a sheet and took photos while Marina shone the car headlights on the whole scene.  I felt like a fairy creature from the forest with these majestically creations emerging from the top of my head. Can't wait to see the photos. 

We've both been working so steady, it was fun to have both of our projects hatch on the same day. We celebrated with local farm wine and asparagus wrapped in prosciutto.  I guess you could call that a good artist day all around :-)