june 23, 2013 (99 days to go)

Being a pretend artist (see previous blog) was a lot easier than trying to become the real deal. I have spent the last 10 days in my studio printing the “52 Trees” portion  of my exhibit at the Riverside Art Museum in October, The first four days were full of trial and ERROR and lots of mentoring from Kathy DeAtley. I HAVE LEARNED SO MUCH!!!

 I have spent the week on  my own with Kathy coming back this weekend to review my work and move me to a more knowledgeable level on proper mixing of ink, wiping the plates (you don’t want to over or under wipe) and pressure strategies on the press. 15 trees done…37 more to go.  I averaged two trees a day and now need to move at a much faster rate to finish by the 4th of July…my new deadline.

The process is much slower than I ever imagined. Yes, I’ve made solar etching before, in a class, but I never timed myself. It takes me about 40 minutes a print from start to finish. I’m making 3 to 4 prints per tree…approx 180 prints. So I have about 90 hours of studio time left over the next 10 days.

I am so please with my learning progress…I told Zee that I was really starting to feel like an artist.

All is good …all of the time…sue

PS Did you note that I have less than 100 days left…OMG!!!