It's still winter here but I'm already doing some spring cleaning- I need to make space for upcoming equipment and new creations.
The printing press seems to be coming along nicely- I'd say that it should be installed in the next couple months, but as construction goes these things always seem to take longer than expected. I'm hoping to get vinyl flooring put in this weekend. This will require me to move everything in the studio, lay down the flooring, then put things back in place. As you can see from the photo below, the floor is currently just plyboard/sub-flooring- which is a pain in the ass to sweep and keep clean, and not good for accidental spills.
Two steps forward, one step backward.
Besides starting some new work, I also want to revisit some older works to basically put them to rest. I have so many different old resources, stencils, supplies, that i need to sort though and file away. I think last weekend completed this process- I'm done with old stencils! YAY! I've found stencils to be such a pain in the ass to work with- there's too much time required cutting plastic, too much effort getting them to line up, and too much time waiting for paint to cure. And when it's all said and done- I really don't like how spray paint stencils require 'bridges' to hold the stencil together- for example, you can see the bridges in the gentleman's blue coat, the lady on the left has some in the black shadow, and my Woodrow Wilson stencil has one across his cheek. I've never found a good way to deal with the physical limitations of stencil making.
I'm SO glad my screen printing gear has arrived- I think screen printing will be a better fit for me- especially since I can get more detail out of it and print shirts too.
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This is my first attempt at a stencil, It's roughly 20x30 and 3 layers- light grey, dark grey, and black. I cut this stencil in 2008 and haven't seriously revisited it since. I found the image from one of the antique photo albums I own. This is sprayed on a piece of sheet metal I'd been meaning to use for something- I figured this would be a great canvas to lay this stencil to rest- (it took me like 15+ hours to cut all of the stencils out).
This piece was in a local art show in Cedar Rapids called 'Harvester' in 2008.
I still feel like I'm not doing enough creating. Part of my problem is that I'm interested in so many different mediums that I feel overwhelmed- should I do some digital art? collage? screen printing? drawing? oil painting? cleaning my studio? Another problem is that it's still winter here in good ol' Iowa, so the days are still very short; these short days really make me want to sleep and lay around more than I should. And as always things come up- for example, one of my hard drives storing my photos is starting to give me some problems.
Other things are coming along- I've got my first screen exposed and should be doing more screen printing in the coming weeks- more to come.