Sunday, May 18, 2014

WORK PROGRESSES BUT...

obviously I'm incapable of keeping my resolution to blog once a week. It seems vain to apologise - after all, neither the cyber world or the real world stop turning when I don't turn up. 

I don't know what the official psychological consensus is regarding people who can't keep resolutions and who are often late, as is my wont. I'll venture that it might be because of a profound contradiction: a combination of over-confidence ("I'll be forgiven because I am adorable" ) and no confidence at all ("It doesn't really matter whether I do anything"). Caught between those irreconcilable differences, the only escape is to make resolutions, not keep them, and then compose a non-apologetic explanation and post it as a blog, three weeks late.

Meanwhile, work on the Trans-Siberian is going well and takes up all my time and more. One of the beauties of printmaking is the element of surprise. Until you take a proof of any block or plate you've been slaving over for hours or days, there's no way of knowing what you've got. It is always a thrill to turn the wheel of the press then lift the paper off the inked block and examine the first proof. Sometimes it's perfect as is, sometimes more work needs to be done on the block. Either way the process itself is highly rewarding.

I've selected a few proofs to keep you interested, my friends and bloggers. The text in these examples is only roughly pasted onto the prints. In the final book, text will be printed in colour.