Apologies for the quiet around here — I had surgery on my left hand last month and have been somewhat restricted in the use of my hands. Things are healing up though, and I’m back in the upstairs print studio starting to work on prints.
My mom recently gave me a collection of my old drawings that were stored away somewhere at her house, and it was funny to go through them. I drew a lot when I was little, and my mom enrolled me in weekly after-school drawing lessons with Mrs. Salvador, a local artist in St. Clair Shores. I went to Mrs. Salvador’s art classes for years. Among the piles of drawings of mostly animals, I found this still life drawing (age 6, almost exactly 38 years ago):
I hung it in my studio partly as a reminder of how long I’ve been making art and partly because I like it. It’s funny too because it’s not far off from my style now — objects floating in white space with no background, everything’s kind of flattened out, and color — I mean, look at that red. I also found a letter regarding the 1987 Crayola Coloring Contest, of which I was one of 1,000 winners who received a red five-foot plastic crayon (that I wish I still had!). The theme that year was “Create Your Vision of the Future,” and I drew a very futuristic flying car with a pool in the back and a robot chauffeur.
I’ve been thinking a lot about my career as an artist lately — I’ve held a lot of different jobs, but the one thread throughout it all has been art, either directly in the work or as something I was doing on the side. I just finished reading Living and Sustaining a Creative Life: Essays by 40 Working Artists, in which artists described their practice, what they do to pay the bills, and how they make it all fit together. I can get down on myself sometimes for my somewhat non-linear career path, but I saw myself in those essays, and it was comforting.
In other news from the upstairs print studio:
I am making progress on the downstairs darkroom — just in time for an emulsion shortage! One of the chemicals used to make emulsion is in short supply, and no one knows when it will be available again. Emulsion is tricky because once you find your emulsion — one that works with your lights and setup — you don’t really want to bounce around between different brands. I got the last quart of the one I wanted (I heart you Ulano LX-660, please come back), so we’ll see how far this darkroom project can go.
Soon I will be reviving Postcard Club, this time via Patreon. In 2019, I created Postcard Club and mailed an original screen printed postcard every month for one year to its 100 members. I loved Postcard Club — it was super fun and it kept me thinking and working, and I love sending (and receiving) mail. If you’re interested in knowing more, please join my email newsletter, and I will send out a note when it’s time to sign up.