I’m beat. Having a day job, the flu, and a limited amount of time to work on an exchange print for the Southern Graphics Conference, “Patent Pending,” is wearing me down. And it doesn’t help when you forgot the studio space you depend on is closed for spring break. I spent the weekend running around turning my already small apartment into a studio. My bathroom is a dark room to expose silk screens, my kitchen sink is to wash those screens (probably a hazard to my health, but I don’t have time to care), my counter top is my cutting paper/apply emulsion to screen/inking up/and printing area. Wherever I could find to sit is where I carved. This was stressful. But all I have to say is woodcuts, I’ve missed thee. It’s been too long. Approximately 10 months since I’ve carved your buttery grain. No offense to letterpress, but I love woodcuts. And thanks to my new handy baren, I can actually print woodcuts without a real press. Oh, the possibilities!

This print compliments this self-portrait I did last April in school. Except this one is not a self-portrait. The blackbird wearing the bluebird mask depicts someone whom I deeply cared about, but recently found they’ve been keeping a side of who they are a secret. When the truth came out about this person, I felt like everything I knew was wrong and it scared me how easily I can be fooled. I had plans to screen print talk bubbles all around the figure and have one on the other side of the rice paper, so it’s as if they should’ve been telling me that, instead of “this.” But when I printed the bird, all alone in it’s corner, it made me think about this person and how they felt lonely and probably still does. I started to feel sympathetic towards this person, whom I’ve barely spoken to in nearly 2 months. I’ve decided to leave it alone rather than make a statement of they should’ve told me the truth in the beginning, as way of saying I’m slowly coming around. Slowly.

Anyways, ta da:

11×14 Unbleached Mulberry Rice Paper

Tags relief Southern Graphics Council woodcut