Monday morning. Back to reality after an inspiring trip to Haystack. Yet I am still happy to be home around my favorite people. Now that I am home I have a lot to do to process the artwork that I made there and the ideas that I generated. Plus laundry. So much laundry. Laundry is the worst. But for now there is coffee to drink and kids that need to get to school.
Goodbye Haystack deck.
As I have gotten more and more into sketching and watercolors finding time for carving woodblocks and printing with my 300lb press has been more of a challenge. But I have a commission to work on and I am not ready to abandon printmaking to become a watercolor sketchbook artist. Printing for an hour or two once a week seems like the perfect amount for me to get things done and leave time for drying and thinking in between. I knew that I wanted to print the color red and that Monday was the best day to do it as the week was already filling up with end of school year commitments. Yet I hesitated and came up with excuses and other things to do with my precious time. The truth was I didn't want to print. Or more accurately I didn't want to start printing. Starting things tends to give me anxiety because my brain focuses on all the ways for me to mess up. This is a tendency that I am fighting. So at 9am I set a timer, put on my studio apron, put on a podcast and got to printing. I was done when the timer went off at 10am. This routine is going to get more challenging this summer in the heat and with the kiddos home with me so I had better get used to using the time when I have it.
I printed red.
As an artist I am a natural hoarder as I am inclined to keep all sorts of items for possibly future use and save things like sketchbooks. I make and collect art and books and these take up space. But I have found that life works more efficiently when I have less stuff and spend less time cleaning and more time working on what I care about. How do I find that balance? When do you let old art or art supplies go?
