First up, was delivering 10 framed artworks to 2 different states (whew!) 3 of these pieces will be part of a show, "Printmaking and the Natural World," opening this coming week at The Feick Arts Center of Green Mountain College in Vermont. The next day a piece will opening as part of "Show of Heads," at Limner Gallery in Hudson. The other 7 works that were delivered will be part of a show at Thompson Giroux, opening in December. Once everything was delivered, I should have cleaned the studio...and I did (a little), but mostly I was excited to get back to carving. I made some changes to the template of the torso of the life scale figure I'm working on (yes, even though I've been working on it for weeks - the more I looked at it, the more I became convinced the right sleeve would fit, so I measured. It does, and so I added it, thereby reducing the total number of blocks needed - yay!) Progress is being made, but it's slow going, so I decided to carve something that could reach completion in the week. As a reward to myself for getting all the work delivered, I decided to carve a kestrel, since raptors are one of my favorite to carve.
I thought it was going well...until I proofed it the first time and realized there was a flaw in the block that left a thin line across the whole thing. It was so tiny I didn't see it when I inspected the block before carving, and it would have been fine...except it went right through the beak. I sanded the block down a little, carved out the background and proofed again. The good news is, I think it's mostly gone in the beak, but the bad news is, I think it's still visible elsewhere. Luckily, I think I still may be able to fix it with mixed media after printing.I also struggled with printing this - the fine lines filled in after printing a few times, so I cleaned the block completely and am waiting for it to dry before trying again - fingers crossed.
 |
| First state |
 |
| second state |
Apart from the new block, I also went on some nature adventures - fall is especially pretty here.
Naturally, Honey Wonderpup led the way.
I also got an incredibly cute photo of Momiji with a tiny rainbow (I have no idea where it came from since there's no prism in the window.)
Mo is so funny - I love the way he continues to mimic Mini. This week Mini was on top of the pizza box and Mo climbed up right next to her (I'm not sure he realizes that being on top of the warm box is part of the point, since Mini in not inclined to share).
Mini used to do the same thing when she was Mo's age, following Sunny around and copying her - maybe that was on my mind because I think she looks like she's mirroring Sunny's pose in the photo here.
...though Mini is much more affectionate toward the kittens than Sunny was toward her as a little one - they often stick close together (with Mini in charge, Mo wanting to do whatever she does, and Max following a cautious step behind - and isn't Max cute smelling the roses - my fluffy Ferdinand.)
