It's a start...

further travels and adventures in art and friendship...

Last week I returned from my annual fall trip to visit some of my friends on the east coast. Apologies to anyone I missed seeing…it’s always a struggle to get to see everyone I’d like to, and should the world continue spinning after next week (oh…is there something happening?) hopefully I’ll make up for it next trip. There are pandas to see in DC, after all!

It was a two week extravaganza of beautiful fall weather, visits to museums and galleries, drives in the countryside, lounging around with my friends and eating too much excellent food. There was also the truck picking up roadkill deer from the road, but maybe I could have done without that…

But no sooner did I dump all my dirty laundry out on the bedroom floor, then it was time to get myself in the correct time zone, gather up some stuff and head over a couple islands over to Bainbridge Island to take a monotype* workshop from artist Wendy Orville (check out her website and her beautiful work, and you’ll see why I wanted to learn from her after watching an artist’s talk she did during her recent show at Harris/Harvey gallery in Seattle WA)

If I’ve learned anything in all these post-formal education years, it’s that there is tremendous value in taking workshops and retreats to expand my skills. It’s not only about the specifics I learn, which are never apparent from the work I bring home from a workshop.

I went with two specific goals. One, to learn the viscosity and density of ink to be able to manipulate an image on a printing plate. The other was learning how to do a graduated smooth roll for background values/colors. While it’s impossible to achieve the level that I desire to achieve in 2 days (I mean, come on…Wendy has been doing this for years!) I feel like I have the experience I needed to continue practicing the new skills I learned over the coming months and years to make the art I want to make.

The other wonderful thing about small group learning, is meeting new people who are excited about the same thing that you are. It was a very congenial group of artists. There was shared excitement about learning something new, and I came home with a little spring in my step, a renewed commitment about making art, and the realization I needed to do a serious studio tidying session(s) to make the printmaking part of my studio functional again. I am making progress! There is still more to do, but I could start playing with my printing process soon. I’ll be excited to share what I do as I create new work.

*Monotype is a form of printmaking in which there is no fixed plate which can be repeatedly inked and have a nearly identical image result, as you would in etching, relief printing, or lithography. Some artists, myself included, use monotype techniques in combination with an etching or relief plate to create variations on the fixed plate called a monoprint.

And because I know you were dying to ask if I took a photograph of the deer removal truck…

And yes, it smelled as bad as you think it would!

DON’T FORGET TO VOTE! (AS IF!)