Diary of a residency, day 6, February 21, 2009

A long, long day at the  wood block printing workshop taught by artist Maria Arango. I did a wood block — a thousand times more sophisticated than any stamps or blocks I carved when I was doing textile printing. Granted, I never did any sophisticated textile printing, but I knew some of the ideas involved. I just didn’t know the real way to do real prints.

My block is done and it only took me 7 hours to carve and do various proofs — and recarve after each one. I had a dumb cloud that got dumber and then dumber but at least it got smaller as I went along. No photos — too busy. Tomorrow I’ll try better.

The print is of a mountain, Underwoodish-style, with the dumb cloud in the corner.

Suzanne, our queen mother, ran the food concession (and carved a fine block) while Maria, our slave driver (ostensibly the instructor), kept us working with her own enthusiasm and energy. I’m brain-dead and wiped. And happy that I actually carved a woodblock. I loved the carving but hated the design problem. Black and white, masses, reverse composition — nothing that a painter could deal with!

We get to use the printing press tomorrow. I’ve never used a printing press before.

Reported from Beatty Nevada, the Goldwell House.

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