Oof my knees. The joyous pain of productivity in print.
So I got up at 10ish and showered and stuffed some toast in my mouth. I forgot my thermos of tea at home though. Booo. Got to school at around 11:30. Claimed the back six tables for my one off class. So cool that I was asked to teach over all the other qualified people. Why me? I know I've taught a couple people here and there. And I have a joy of sharing art and practices. And I think I'm generally personable if you aren't a total knob. Either way, hurray! It was only a class of five: Tom (who I called Dom the whole day, other people called him Tommy but I think he introduced himself as Dom and I repeated Dom and was never corrected) Carla? Sarah? Dominique and Emily. A nice little group of four seniors and one graduate. Heather and Mel graciously loaned me a screen for my class. So I started with emulsion. I didn't give a live demo, I just had each of them apply it to a screen in turn. And they all did super! Applying emulsion should not be rushed. Then I found out that through a miscommunication they didn't bring images to print, only paper to print on (and also not a lot of paper, but I had brought down a reem of my Mohawk thesis paper (I have 2000 sheets and at most will use 1200 of them, and that is a high estimate)) so I told them to either draw something, pick something from a sketchbook, or print something I provided. Three drew something, one picked from a sketchbook, and one printed a drawing I did on Mel (using Mel's screen). I also exposed a two color images just to show them how to do two color registration. While waiting for the screens to dry, BT was in attendance and I asked him to give a little talk on at home printing. And off the cuff he did a really great job of explaining and tips and times and stuff. I only know in studio printing, so it was great to have someone supplement it.
Explaining takes so much longer to get through all the steps, but we got through it. Screen by exposed screen, we got all set up to print. And we had a hoot of a time! The double color demo went over well and I gave them all a print from that. Having the reem of paper to print on really made the experience fun, because they were able to play instead of running out of paper. They printed a ton, though it didn't make much of a dent in the paper. And they used up lots of left over ink(always a bonus) and did split fountains. And it was enough printing that I was able to help a few of them trouble shoot different problems. At around four I said that it was time to clean up because more people will inevitably be coming in to print. I showed them one by one how to remove the emulsion. And we separated the piles of prints. I also photocopied a bunch of my little guides to printing, just so they could take home most everything I said and it wouldn't all be memory. It's good to have a record of technique to fall back on. Also told them to email me with any questions. We had some good goodbyes and when they left I did a little jig. Thought I did quite well.
Then I plopped down exhausted in my studio and talked to Jon and drank a soda. Went home. Ate a peanut butter and honey sandwich and drank some tea and watched part of a TED talk from the artist JR. Then I realized the library closed soon so I rushed back to school. Printed out the two Robin print layers. Applied emulsion to two screens. Set up my space. Oiled up my transfer. Counted out 65 sheets of paper (50 for the actual edition, 15 for the midterm panel concept one). The color layer is fantastic. It is a soft brown that fluctuates in golden tones. Very lovely. I only got about half way through the black line layer. The school closes at the STUPID time of 10pm on Saturday. I printed both layers on the fridge. They didn't come close to lining up, but now they are there until the fridge is replaced (the last fridge with my Lucky Luna on it is gone, this is a new fridge in dire need of art). I just put the screen against the fridge and pulled a print. Mel's pizza print is also there looking awesome. Robin is the perfect figure for a print fridge. Hehe. I got out of school right on time. It was raining and a couple of the prints got droplets on them, but no major biggie. The prints look good. My fingers might have smudged a couple. I'll have a good spy at the edition tomorrow or something. It looks like each layer needs an hour time to print, not including time to expose screens. It would take a little less if I had someone catching paper, but I can't plan to have that all the time. It's off to good start. I've missed the printing studio.
Now I'm back home, tired. Once I revive I'll draw some more portraits. Gotta get back ahead of it all. They come easier to me, which is nice.
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