It may take a really long time, but eventually I’d like to be as good at prints as Aaron Horkey…
The twelfth was the six month anniversary party for the studio.
Our story starts on the eleventh, when we cleaned up the studio,
hung our work,
looked cool,
and generally were the most awesome people we could be.
Next it’s the evening of the 12th, what’s soon to be a beautiful night on Capitol Hill:
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| From Drop Box |
Local 1520 members mosey in an hour or so before the event starts, doing last minute chores, bringing in prizes (calculator watch, American flag bandana, bottle of Port) buying drinks and setting up food. Greg realizes we need to card people… … … (probably because our graphic designer friend now in NY shot photos for them, the Stranger used an image of Greg (age 28) being poured a glass of wine for this week’s story on cops cracking down on art galleries not carding underage drinkers)
Half an hour before the party officially starts people start showing up. Some get drafted into helping us out. We make another of our graphic designer friends draw us manicules, for example.
One reason we celebrated today was so it would coincide with Capitol Hill’s second Thursday art walk crowd. It’s a little hard to find our studio because it’s at the end of the hall, so this time we decided to make it a little more visible.
^ That’s Greg’s piece of the Deepwater Horizon blowing up.
There were a ton of people all night long, and a fair amount of turnover as well. These photos don’t do it justice, especially as the studio is remarkably resistant to all-in-one shots.
The main event of the night was the coloring competition.
All entries were great, but the winning entries were great and had an extra something (second or third place winner, can’t remember):
The night was a success by every measure. Including on foursquare, apparently, as we were a “trending event” matched only by Cal Anderson park.
That’s us, trendsetters.
Goodbye, and see you next time!
Here’s the a proof of the first layer of a two-color print.
I thought I was going to try gradients in this print, but actually it looks like I’m going to do no such thing. It’s just going to be a two-color print.
Things I learned while making this print:
That suicide prints can be practical.
That fine detail and feathering isn’t too hard. But that even semi-realistic feathers can be really hard.
That I should avoid mixing artistic styles.
That in order to do that I should know what most of my layers will look like before I carve them.
That another way to do that, and something I should do anyway, is to speed up production process, as it’s better to make the mistakes early and the next print better than to dwell on this one.
That artists proofs can be much better than the actual thing.
That the best printmakers seem to find ways to avoid needing really precise registration.
That it’s going to be a while yet before I make really commercially viable prints, but that I’m slowly getting there.
No Cedar Waxwings were harmed in the production of this print.
I’m taking a series of photos I call my “bandwagon” series. If I see a band unpacking or repacking a car, I take a picture. That’s all. But it’s so much fun!
A lot of effort for a learning process, but I’ve already learned a lot from doing this print.
This is the third and next to last layer on this suicide print.
What feels like the first three days of true warmth and sunshine this year coincide with pride week. The result is a truly amazing number of people having fun all over Capitol Hill.
The gay bar Purr is right next to the entrance of our building, so we all got passes to get through Purr’s block party. The dyke bar Wildrose is a block down the street, and they’re holding their own block party.
The result was gay dance music blasting all day long. Louder in the studio than the loud music we usually play, so starting at eleven AM that was our soundtrack for today.
The first half of this linocut was done previously, the second half is due today:
To avoid this week’s heat we put paper up over the windows:
Cal Anderson Park is packed. I got some good sketching done while spray painting was going on in the studio.
Soccer player:
Shirtless guy:
Buskers tuning up:
Look at these people!:
That’s what a few days of sun does to Seattle.
Both Block Parties got packed as soon as it got dark. I’m in favor of weekly block parties. The whole atmosphere on Capitol Hill was festive today, and while the vast vast majority of it was due to Pride week and sunshine, pedestrians having freedom to walk and listen to music for a few blocks can’t have hurt.
Towards the Wildrose party:
Towards our doorway (most of the tent was just under our window):
After a long night of work, talking, and going to Captain Black’s for beer and bacon waffles, the linocut was finished enough to try a test print:
