Ahhhh!!!

Time just goes too fast. I feel like I never get any time in the studio, and this week when I would have had time, I am busy cleaning and doing improvements in the basement, since our Open Studio/Art Show is on Saturday, and I still have a lot to do. We still haven't set up the darkroom, which bothers me. A lot. And I haven't pulled out all the art I have squirrelled away yet. And I still have more cleaning to do. I don't like this. I just want to shut the world away and play in my studio, but life keeps getting in the way. So I dropped the class I was taking this term (yay, no more papers), decided against taking class next term, and told my boss I want to reduce my hours to 4 days a week instead of 5. So hopefully with all that, I should be able to actually clear up some projects very very soon. As soon as exams are over and all the kids go home for the holidays our restaurant will be a wasteland and I should not feel overworked and cranky and actually have time and energy to get some plates done. YAY!

More Steps Back

I have been loving and hating the studio. Mostly hating. I am easily frustrated, and that tends to cause a lot of problems for me. I also do a lot of things I shouldn't, which tends to cause even more problems for me. So when I use whatever random paper in my press that I want because it is pretty and my prints don't turn out, I tend to freak out and just not go near the studio for a while. So you can imagine what's going on here right about now...

However, I did set a date for an open studio date so that people can come by and check out the space and hopefully buy stuff. So I will have to get my press issues sorted out before then. I also decided not to take classes next term so I can hopefully spend more time in the studio. Since it will be winter which makes me all around miserable, I won't want to go outside anyway, so this is a good opportunity for me to get some projects cleared up and re-organize and store my prints properly for when we have to ship them out west next summer. Hopefully...

Studio Update

So things have been crazy. I was sick for a while, then the laptop fiasco, then all sorts of shit at work, then finally the move. I don't have the studio up and running yet, which makes me really sad. However, I have pictures! They are crappy, since they are from my phone (my camera died too...) but you can see how things are shaping up, and even better, what the space looked like before. My father-in-law was using the room as a sort of shop and catch-all. I'm really not sure how he found anything in there, though he always seemed to know where everything was.





See what I mean? before I moved the rest of the things in (read: before it became messy again) it was starting to look like this:






I am hoping to get in to work on it a bit later today, since now my old pantry is assembled, and my bookcase. So that should help with storage of books, rags, and frames. Wish me luck!

Another Update

So, we went and picked up my laptop last night. Only to discover that the Best Buy Geek Squad are a bunch of total f**king morons. They apparently decided that I didn't want my data, and THREW AWAY MY HARD DRIVE. I don't really want to get into it right now, but I have spent the entire evening emailing everyone I know to track down print information, which of all the things I lost, is the most important. Why? Because instead of printing a huge edition at once, I tend to do a bunch of smaller editions. Now, to keep them cool, fresh and original, I do chine collé on tons of different papers. And of course I keep track of which papers I use, to make sure I'm not editioning something for the 2nd time and gipping you fine people who buy my prints. And, I keep track of all that on my laptop. The one that crashed. Thanks Geek Squad!

I'm trying to think of this as a new opportunity for starting fresh and trying new ways to organize my print info, but that will only work until the shock wears off, I'm sure. I'm just thankful we haven't had the chance to put the website up, so I have only sold work to people I know that I can still contact. So, wish me luck!

Laptop update

So Armand just called me to tell me that my laptop is back and ready for pick up. Yay! But then he tells me that they were unable to recover ANY data. At all. After they said there was a "very good chance" they would be able to recover "up to 70%". I'm not mad they couldn't recover anything; I'm sure they tried their best, and I'm sure they didn't mean to "lie". Given the information about how my laptop failed and their success rate, I'm going to assume they told me the truth as they saw it. I, however, don't want the truth. I want something that doesn't get my hopes up, even if it is a bit of a lie. Something more to the tune of "often we are able recover a large amount of data, however, sometimes we inexplicably get nothing at all". That sounds like a good company line that won't make you overly hopeful, unless you are an uber-hopeful retard, which is what I became after hearing the line they actually gave us. So, after the shock wears off and I'm done crying over my own bloody stupidity, I will be scouring the Internet/area for data recovery specialists, and preparing myself for the inevitable financial butt-raping that will occur as a result.

Grrr...

So, last week when I discovered I wad going to have three whole days off, I was pretty excited. I figured I could pack, plan some new plates, whatever. Then, my computer crashed. Oh well, right? I can still pack, or whatever. Yeah, about that. I got the bloody Genghis Khan of all colds. The kind of cold so bad that you get up to go to the bathroom, and then you need to nap. So, while I have tried to at least get some source images together for some new plates, I am finding it a lot more difficult without my laptop. Armand has been kind enough to lend me the iPad until I get the laptop back, but it just isn't the same. It is such a fun toy that all I want to do with it is watch YouTube videos and read Cracked, which makes it hard to get real work done, as anyone familiar with Cracked can attest. Also, incase you all live under a rock, Apple hates flash, so that means a lot of cool stuff can't be viewed on the iPad. I also discovered that whatever software Blogger uses to make Blogging for Dummies so quick and easy to use doesn't work on the iPad either.

That's right. I have to try and remember good old fashioned HTML to blog. And do it without a real keyboard. Good times!

Anyway, printmaking. I managed to sharpen my scrapers in anticipation of doing a small mezzotint test plate, and I purchased a copy of The Complete Printmaker a few weeks ago, so I am attempting to read that in my more lucid moments. For anyone who is starting out, this bold is an invaluable guide to printmaking techniques, and is full of ways to save money by building your own acid trays and mixing your own hard ground. It isn't available in hardcover anymore (at least not for a reasonable price) but you can buy softcover copies, and it is also available as an ebook, so that's pretty cool. I'm going to one up them a bit here though. They had nothing to say really about building paper drawers. But I'm going to. I'm working on the measurements so I can make my own 6 drawer paper chest for about $120. Say what? Yeah, we all know I'm crazy, but when I work it out I'll be laughing all the way to the bank, and then sharing it with all you fine folks. Something g to look forward to...

One step forward, two steps back

So, the last few days have sucked some serious balls. I'll save you all the little annoying things that have been going on, and skip right to the good stuff. My laptop, my lifeline, upon which every shred of my artistic information is stored, CRASHED. And burned. We don't know what is wrong with it. I do know what is wrong with me though. I, am stupid. So stupid in fact, that I have never backed up anything. So, yeah. I think I'll go hide in the closet and cry now.

Scanner!!!!!

So, somehow I managed to forget that I actually bought my scanner! Henry's had the best one I could afford at one of their Toronto stores, and was nice enough to ship it in to my local store (Waterloo). So that is fabulous! Too bad for me that there is no where for me to set it up to play with until we get the new space. I do mean no where. So that sucks. Also, I am actually going to have to learn new programs. I hate learning new programs. I have an irrational and childish hatred of learning new computer stuff, but the tech websites I was using to choose my scanner all said it is a great scanner, provided you don't use the software that came with it since it is so lame. So I will be purchasing VueScan, which is apparently the shit in scanning software. So I will have to learn how to use that. And Photoshop, which I have also somehow managed to avoid learning too. I suck, I know.

bleh!

I want my studio now, damn it! It is such a beautiful day, and all I want to do is spend it in my as-yet imaginary studio. Instead, I am blogging to put off cleaning. Considering going out to look for mushrooms, though I really do need to clean. Le Sigh. On the bright side, I went out to Henry's and got some more darkroom trays to use for my acid bath. I figured even though they are more expensive than say, a restaurant bus bin or something like that, they are worth it since they have pour spouts. Since I am accident prone beyond belief and will be playing with acid (for the love of god, why, why??? I can see emergency room visits in my future...) every little thing I can do to hopefully make things go easier and safer I will do. That being said, does anyone know where to get those little squeeze bottle emergency eyewash stations? I think I should probably have one of those. Maybe two, once for each eye, just in case.

I'm no Valley girl who can't tell a Mondrian from a place mat

-from Belinda by Anne Rice, 1986

Recent Work

As the winter term ended at the beginning of April (=end of studio access), and I'm trying to get everything together for our studio, I'm not really working on anything right now. Lots of ideas floating around in my head though. I was working on something when the term ended that is now on hiatus. A few months ago I bought a book called "The Great American Pin-Up" which is filled with hundreds of pictures of pin-up and glamour art and bios of the artists. So I thought it would be fun to do a Suicide Girls inspired classic pin-up. Check out the two preliminary proofs with watercolour pencil trials.

I decided I didn't like the hair just coloured in, it looks too much like marker or something. So when I get the new space up, this is the first thing I'm working on. I'm not sure how I want to do the hair. Usually I just use hard ground and draw it in, but I want to try something different. On the lingerie I used soft ground to get a fabric texture, and I really like how it looks when you colour over it, very soft. So I thought I might try using real hair in the soft ground and see what happens. I don't like to leave things to chance though (especially since I have 2 more plates this size and want to do a series), so I'm going to do a test on a scrap of plate I have lying around. Should be interesting!

Gearing up

So we are moving sometime within the next two months, into a place that has actual space we can use for a studio. This is very exciting for me for a number of reasons. One, while I have studio access at University of Waterloo, it is only while I am enrolled in printmaking classes there. UW doesn't offer any fine arts classes over the summer. So that sucks. I tend to spend huge blocks of time in the studio at once, just to get lots done while no one else is there, so then Armand complains that he never sees me. Well, that problem will be solved, just come downstairs, I'm right here! The reason I try to work at the studio when no one else is there is that the other students are messy. Very messy. I don't like working in other people's messes. My mess, my fault, my problem. But the other students in my over-enrolled class tend to leave crap everywhere, and I do mean everywhere. They suck. I can walk into the studio on any given day and find any or all of the following, which range from annoying to downright dangerous:

• lights on
• doors and windows wide open (with no one there. we actually had vandalism of the building happen because one of my classmates left the bloody windows open overnight and people got in through them
• overhead fan on
• acid hood fan on
• acid hood open
• acid trays not covered
• used paper and scraps of paper on essentially every flat surface
• ink mixing surfaces and rollers not cleaned
• solvents left open
• hot plate left on
• paper tray a disgusting mess of pink, blooming nasty sludge
• tools, gloves, personal belongings left everywhere
• ground rollers cross-contaminated
• prints left in the racks for way too long, so there is no space for yours
• much more I am probably forgetting about

As you can imagine, it gets pretty frustrating. I try to work with no one else there so I don't have to deal with as much of that crap, and if people leave crap lying around, I just sweep it all into a garbage can and no one can complain hahaha. So having my own workspace is a dream come true, even if my press is the tiniest one I have ever seen and I have to do acid bites outside on the patio. I don't care, it is worth it!

So right now I am trying to get all my supplies and tools together so that once we have access to the new place I have everything I need and just need to set up. Anyone who has done printmaking before can imagine that this could take quite a while. It is expensive to buy everything at once, and there is really no one, fabulous art store in the Kitchener-Waterloo area that carries everything I need all in once place for prices that aren't completely overblown. I have ended up getting supplies and tools at a variety of places. Too many I think! To give you an idea of the depth and breadth, these are places I have purchased supplies from since the beginning of this year, both for studio set up and for my class/personal projects before I we found out about the new space. We currently live near the university, so some of these places are close, but most of the best ones aren't.

• The Artstore (Waterloo)(paper)
• Curry's (Kitchener. Brand new, near the SilverCity cinema)(paper, plates, liquid ground, tint base extender, brushes)
• Above Ground (Toronto)(grounds, stop out, tarlatan, rosin, inks, easywipe)
• The Paper Place (Toronto)(paper)
• State of the Art (Waterloo)(paper)
• Michaels (Waterloo)(paper, notions, sheets of mat (I worked as a framer for years, so I cut my own mats), adhesives, white transfer paper)
• Jerry's Artarama (Mail order from the Southern USA)(press, archival print bags, folding rack (to hold mounted works for shows), framer's point gun (so I can save $$ on framing, which is way too expensive), brayer and baren)
• Ikea (Burlington/Etobicoke)(the only place that has large square frames)
• E.C. Lyons (Mail order from NY, USA)(scrapers, burnishers, magnifier)
• Wyndham (Guelph)(paper, plates, brushes, nitric acid, binder clips)
• The Bay (Waterloo)(electric griddle)
• Home Hardware (Waterloo)(paint thinner, methyl hydrate, caulking gun)
• Home Depot (Waterloo)(gloves, wire, magnets, toolbox)
• Dollarama (Waterloo)(kitchen gloves, bowls)
• Chapters (Waterloo, and web order)(books, of course!)
• Amazon (web order)(books)

On top of all that, I got the sheet of glass that I am going to mix my inks on for free from my boss (Thanks Brad!). However, I still need several things...

• A paper chest/flat file. Since to buy one would cost several hundred dollars that I don't have, so I am going to make my own out of melamine coated plywood and hardboard from Home Depot. I should be able to do it for $100 or less. Yes, I am that ambitious.
• trays for acid and water
• organizing stuff
• chair/stool (which I can't buy until I know what height the surfaces I'll be working on are)
• scanner. I have been using my fathers, which is evil and mostly dead. It works less often than not.
• camera. My digital camera died. Seeing as I work a lot from my photos, this is a bit of a problem. I also use it to take photos of my pieces for my own reference, for our website, and for the etsy site (which isn't up quite yet, so don't ask!)

In a nutshell, I am broke and my prints are beautiful, therefore please buy one (or several!)

Not That Kind of Acid Bath...

I've never blogged before, so this should be interesting! Get ready to follow the exciting world of printmaking!