Me And The Devil Blues part 6

 It's unusual for me to go to the Studio three times in one week, but I will likely miss a day next week with a doctor's appointment, and besides, I want to see what this print looks like.  Plus, on the news yesterday we were reminded that Christmas is only two weeks away, and I've got to get going on this year's cards.  So up there I went this morning.

I started with the new Robert Johnson block, doing a textless one.  First time printings are always the most difficult, and it didn't help that there is a lot of black in this one.  Nevertheless, I started with that today.  Results were not great.  I saw evidence of a slight shift of the print on the block, and knew that continuing was pointless.  I did get the whole thing printed, if not fully black in all the areas, and the good news is that I think the image is fine.  I'll clean up a few spots that took unwanted ink, but essentially, the image area is done.  Below is a look at what I started doing:

After that, I decided to go right to the Christmas card.  I had brought some pre-sized bristol board with me, the paper I use for my cards.  I inked up the block, taping the side where I knew the back started.  The first paper shifted on the block, but I realized this was due to the awkward way I was trying to hold it.  I changed the position of the block for the next proof and it worked out fine.  When I was done, I had 5 good proofs I can use.  Carefully packed them for transport and took them home, where I will play with color until I get it right.  If all goes well, I'll still have 5 good ones to work with, but I'll need at least 7 to distribute, so it looks like I need to print a few more next week.  However, it looks like I will be on time to have one to post here on Christmas Day, and to give out locally.  If I get more done next week, I'll have enough for everyone who is expecting one, ideally before Christmas.

Me And The Devil Blues part 5

 I was excited to get up to the Studio this morning and finish this block.  I knew all I had left was the last line of text, and that was shorter than the line I did last time.  And as expected, it didn't take very long to do that, and the accreditation at the other end.  The remainder of the block, below the text, also went quicker than expected.   Results can be seen below:

Next time I print it and see what I have.  If all goes well, the image and lyrics are fine and all I need to do is work on getting a good proof to hang in a show.

Since the above didn't take much time, I decided to continue working on my Christmas card block.  Cutting out all the shapes took a little longer than I expected for such a small block, but I managed to finish it today.  Now all that needs is to be printed and colored.  Near as I can tell, it looks about right, but it is a somewhat abstract image, so it is hard to tell until I try coloring it.  Got my first card in the mail the other day, so I guess I better get going on this.

Me And The Devil Blues part 4

 Having finished (for now) the image area of the print, I knew that today I would begin with the text at the bottom of the print.  I had previously redone the lettering, so it was just a matter of cutting them out.  As I always tell people who are shocked at my ability to do this, cutting out a backwards letter is no more difficult than cutting out a forwards letter- it's just a shape to go around.   I finished the top line fairly quickly, and decided that doing the second line would take more time than I wanted to be there today, so I moved on to work some more on this year's holiday card.  I had started drawing it at home, but I fixed a few parts of the drawing that needed it, and cut out the margin around the piece.  So far my glued on piece of wood is holding on as desired.  Of course I have no pictures of the card to show you yet, but there is an image of my other block below:

One thing I did notice today was that I seemed to cut a lot of "Y" shapes out, so I went back and looked at that first line.  All but one word had a "Y" in it- "you may bury my body down by".  This doesn't affect the print at all, but it's just something I noticed.  Only one "Y" in the whole second line of text.

Me And The Devil Blues part 3

 I didn't need to look at anything on the internet this time- everything was either already on the block, or would be found in the Studio.  I cleared off my table and got to work.

First thing I did was pull out some older prints and blocks.  Some of what I wanted to fix today was based on previous work, and I knew all this was there in the room.  The two figures I have about to get on the bus are based on the two figures from the earlier Love in Vain print.  Are they the same people?  I don't know.  I leave it up to the viewers to decide.  

The background borrows a bit from the most recent boardwalk print, and those bushes that are behind the seated figures.  For these I pulled out the block itself, rather than look at the finished print.  Those earlier bushes were colored, but these in the new print will be black and white.  However, I think this same idea will work here.  I'll find out when I print it.

For the rest I just went with the block drawings, correcting a few things as I went, fixing them with pencil before cutting them.  What I got done today was the two figures, the exit sign, the curbs and sewer grate, and all that background.   If I need to make any more changes to the image area, I'll figure it out after I try printing it.  Results can be seen below:

One more thing I did before leaving was to redo the lettering on the song lyrics below the image.  This involved adding a word (verified by listening to the song a few more times online) and cutting a little between the two lines of text.  My plan is to start working on that text the next time I am there.  Experience tells me it will take two more visits to finish cutting the block.  

Me And The Devil Blues part 2

Not my usual day to go in the Studio, but I had nothing else to do today, so I decided to take the ride up there and advance my latest block a little bit.  Much of the drawing had already happened, but I did take the time to fix a few things in pencil first before cutting them out.  What I have done so far is the bus, a white stripe on the pavement (representing a white line on the road), some of the plants on the ground and in the background, the homemade crucifix on the grave, and the pole that the exit sign is attached to.  

The bus is based on two Greyhound buses of the 1950's, found on the internet.  I put aspects of both into the bus that I made.  I grew up in a place where buses are quite common, part of NJ Transit, and these buses travel all over.  I used to take some to and from high school, before a van was set up to transport the kids from Bloomfield.  However, out in the midwest (where this print seems to take place). there were no local buses, just Greyhound and other distant bus lines that took you far away.  (that Johnson mentions Greyhound in the song itself makes using one even more imperative)  And the only passenger train line we had out there was Amtrak, which stopped in town overnight, during a break in all the long freight trains that occupied those tracks of the Illinois Central and Gulf the rest of the time.  (meanwhile, we have lots of trains around here as well, including one that stopped near one of the colleges I worked at and another that stopped near a college I graduated from) As a result, those in the Carbondale area didn't go anywhere until they were old enough to drive and/or own a car.  As I discovered working with some Girl Scouts, going to the mall was considered a special treat. unlike here in Jersey where a bus could get you there if you couldn't take a car.

The plants are all borrowed from previous prints.  I've cut all these shapes before, so I figure I can do it again.  Some are now cut, and some aren't done yet, but I know what will go there, and have done it before.  Below is the image of where it stands so far:

To take the photograph, I moved a whole bunch of Molly's recently printed towels off my portable tack board.   We had some possible plans to get together this weekend for more beer and art talk, but the never happened.  I was in there process of putting the towels back when she came in.  Mostly it was to pick up all those towels, destined for a possible sale event, so I didn't need to put them all back.  She also brought up the beer thing, saying it didn't happen, but she came in and did more work on her towels, which I had noticed as I moved them.  (her water based ink was all dry, so I wasn't worried about any mess when moving them)  She took off, I wished her luck, and locked the place up.  

Christmas 2025 is Coming part 1

 We are at the end of November right now, so that means time to start thinking about this year's Christmas card.  It takes a while to draw, cut, print, and color the cards, so if I want to get them out even close to the holiday, I have to start now.  Towards that end, I have been looking at potential art historical works, both on the internet and in books, and have narrowed it down to a few options, and I will have to decide soon.  Meanwhile, today I worked on preparing a piece of wood.   Last time I was in the Studio, I noticed a piece of wood that might work, so today I cut it in half, and then glued to two halves together.  The goal was to create a wider piece, something that would hold the entire piece of paper on it, which makes it easier to print them when the time comes for that. (a single piece of wood is large enough to have to card image itself)  Results can be seen below:

My plan in the coming days is to pick a subject, draw it on the longer half of the block, and when I am satisfied, cut the whole thing out, which can be done in a single session at that size.  Throughout the day I added more glue to each side, so now I have a stable block.  Whether or not it will hold together during to cutting and printing processes is another story, but I'll deal with that as it happens.

The other thing I had to take care of today was find out what is going on tomorrow.  Last night my mother saw something online about an open studio event at my building.  Problem was that I had heard of no such thing, and I had been in the office a few days ago.   An open studio is the kind of thing I should know about, especially if I am going to participate.  So today I made sure to ask.  What I found out was that there will be a holiday art market going on in the building tomorrow, and from how these have gone in the past, this will be heavily attended, but few people will go down the basement, and the building will make no effort to get people down there (holiday vendors will be on floors 1 to 3) so there is no point to me hanging around in my space waiting for visitors.  As a result, I won't be going there tomorrow, and will wait for the next official open studio event to open up my space to visitors.

Me And The Devil Blues part 1

Time for the last Robert Johnson print in this series.  This is the last because I have no more ideas, and because the planned show is not happening now.  I continued the series beyond learning that the Nashville show wasn't happening, because I still had some ideas, and it was still a series to work on, but it will end with this one.  When they will be exhibited I have no idea, but I don't see that as a problem right now.

This last one is Me and the Devil Blues, which is a fairly evil song (as one might expect), but I had one more idea from my original list, so I decided to do it.  The lyric I chose is "you may bury my body, down by the highway side" (the line that follows is "so my evil spirit can catch a Greyhound bus and ride")  As such, this is one of the most literal interpretations in this series of prints, showing an area next to the highway where a body has been buried, and a little piece of a 50's era Greyhound bus (actually combined bits of two buses of that era) stopped by the highway side to pick up few passengers.  No sign of Johnson rising from his grave to board that bus, so maybe he did it already, or maybe it has yet to happen.  I put an exit sign near the point in the highway that the bus has stopped, with a sign that combines aspects of a local road sign (see the above photo) and actual signs from the Garden State Parkway and I-57 in Illinois, since Johnson is known to have passed that way in his travels. (found those other signs on the internet, which has everything if you know where to look for  it)  The background plants make use of plants I have used in previous prints, and images from those internet photos. 

As I was busy working on my block I got a surprise visit- Molly.  She doesn't often come in at this time to work, but today she did, so naturally we had some conversation around bits of silence as we were working.  My goal was to complete my usual starting point- the outside margins of the image area.   I got all that done, and Molly worked on some towels, adding more silkscreened bits to each of some already started.  The music I put on (the Gun Club, first album and some from a live album, appropriate for today's print it seemed) ended, so I decided to leave the Studio to Molly and get to my next stop.

I'm A Steady Rollin' Man part 11

I had another piece of the right paper torn to the right size, so I figured why not get up to the Studio and pull another, hopefully better, copy of the latest print, with the text.  So this morning I did just that.  I got up there, cleared off my work table, and set up to print.  No cutting this time, just inking, taping, and printing.  Below you can see the block and today's print, side by side.  

This is definitely the cleanest copy I have ever made, thanks to extra taping, planned at home.  The only significant flaw is that it's a little low on the paper, not leaving me a lot of room to sign it and mat it.  However, I am happy with the results, and I will declare that I am finished with this particular print.  Next time I work on something else.

I'm A Steady Rollin' Man part 10

In the morning I went back to the Studio with a plan- to cut away most of the unwanted marks from the block, so they wouldn't take ink anymore.   Then print the block again.  So that's what I did.  I cleared my work table and cut away what I didn't want from the block.  At the same time, I removed some blue tape that I had left behind last time.  Most of the stray marks were around the lettering (the song lyrics), but there were also things removed from the margins and the image area.  A photo of some of these scraps can be seen below:

After I was done cleaning up the block I pulled a new proof.  It was better than the last one I did, but still not perfect, so I may try again next week to get one suitable for framing and exhibition.  But at least I won't have to clean the block again. 

I'm A Steady Rollin' Man- Finished

 Got up to the Studio in the morning, prepared to make a few cuts and print the results.   The block was ready for more cutting, having taken a blotter proof of it late last week.   Not a lot of cuts, but I had looked at my first proof a lot and had decided what needed to be cut before getting up there, so it didn't take long to do it once I got there.   I removed some uncut stuff (don't know what I was thinking), in the phone dial, and on the ring box.  Another major change was a letter in the whiskey bottle label, inexplicably created forwards, which would not do at all in my printed version.  I had determined that I could cut a little of it away, and fix it with a little hand coloring on the finished print.  So that's what I did.  Some minor cutting after that, and I was ready to print.

I tore some of the right paper to the proper size, enough to make two proofs.   First I pulled one like my first one, without the lyrics, then I pulled one with the lyrics.   Neither is my final version (both have smudges and other marks) but this lets me know that I am done with this piece. and ready to move on to the next thing.  Below is a photo of the latter proof:

I'm not sure yet what will be next.  Maybe the last Robert Johnson print (I have some ideas), or maybe a boardwalk print.  Whatever I start, I may have to stop for a while to work on this year's holiday card, whatever that turns out to be.

I'm A Steady Rollin' Man part 9

 My plan for today was to get up to the Studio in the morning and pull a proof of the newest block.   If it was perfect (or at least as close as I will get), then I have a first proof of the block suitable for framing, and if not, I will know what needs to be done.   When I got up there, I pulled the box from behind my rack, where I assumed I had some sheets of the lightweight left.  I did find a nice sized sheet of paper, but if felt a bit heavier than what I was used to.  However, I decided to use it anyway, and cut a sheet in half, using my tear bar, two properly size pieces for what I had planned.  

I got out everything I needed, opened my current can of ink, and got ready to print. I haven't printed since early in the summer, so the top of the ink had dried out a bit, but what was under that crust was fine.   I inked up the block, then tried to pull a proof.   

This paper was a little heavier than what I have used to print other prints in this series, which I noticed as I was hand rubbing the back of it.  But even before I tried to print it, I had noticed some potential problems. Some things that I just didn't cut, but needed to be.  And this heavier paper had shifted slightly in the printing process, so the proof is not usable.  And a few areas just didn't get enough ink, a problem with first proofs.  However, it taught me a few things about the block, and the next time I print it, I'll deal with all those problems.  Another thing you may have noticed in the above photo is that one of the letters is backwards on a whisky bottle label.  I may be able to fix that in printing, or maybe not.   I'll find out when I print it next time.  

On the whole, it's not a bad print, so I hope the next proof is a better print than this one was.   I know what I need to do, so it's just a matter of doing it.   As part of my clean up, I used the last of the bottle of oil that I had.  Not a problem, as I had a new bottle ready to go, one that I bought a few months ago.  Put it in my printing bag, and will use it next time.

One thing I had to do today, on October 27th of this year, was to listen to the one disc I have that was also recorded on October 27th, the birthday concert for WNEW-FM (102.7 fm) in 1990.  That was a show by Robert Cray and his band, broadcast that night over the radio.  At the tine I taped it onto a cassette, and later burned it to a disc, probably in the early 21st century.  I think I made a copy of that disc to keep in the Studio, which is why I have it now, as part of my jazz/blues book.  I first recorded it in 1990, and the digital copy I have sounds as good as it ever did, some 35 years later.  The radio station is long gone, but the music lives on.  

I'm A Steady Rollin' Man part 8

All I had left was part of the text (lyric and attribution), so I expected it wouldn't take long.   And I guess it didn't, as I was done by noon, although it took a bit longer than I thought.  Part of that was the particularly hard wood in one corner.  Even my good tools did not want to cut through it, but eventually I got it done.  I took a photo of my newly finished block, which you can see below:

Next time I go in, I will ink it up and see what it actually looks like.  Don't know when that is yet, as I have a lot of medical related appointments in the coming weeks, and mostly around the time of day when I like to go into the Studio.  But one day I will get there, and when I do, printing is on the agenda.   If it looks good, I'll declare it done and move on to the next thing, whatever it is.

I'm A Steady Rollin' Man part 7

 With the image area done (for now), today's task was to take on the text of the print- the lyrics and credit.  However, I had to take care of a few things first.  One was to decide if it needed quotes (") or not.  I knew I had not put them in, but I didn't know if I had stopped doing that before.  Only way was to check the past prints.  The one I had in a frame had them, and when I looked in the rack I could see that the last print I had completed (the current set of three) had the quotes, so I figured I should put them in this one.  I saw that the first line had enough room at the end to handle such a thing, so I put some in and moved everything down a letter.  This led to the second thing- redrawing all the letters to make them a little nicer before cutting anything out.   I got a little more than half the adapted lyrics done during the planned session, which is about what I expected.  Results are below:

One more session of cutting should do it.  I've done enough of these Robert Johnson prints that I know what to expect in cutting these, plus I've been cutting wood for most of my life now, and I know a thing or two about cutting wood.   Then I will print the whole thing and see what I have.

I'm A Steady Rollin' Man part 6

 I knew from looking at the last photo that I hadn't put in the gray tone to represent the bottled bourbon whiskey in the foreground bottle, so I took care of that first.   Easiest thing I had to do the whole session.  My main project was redrawing and then cutting the ring, including the ring box.  I had brought a ring box with me, minus the ring that had been inside it. (besides being relatively valuable, as a male ring, it wouldn't have been useful anyway)  However, when this was done, I still had some time left in what I planned for the session, so I decided to do that background money, and the pills, in that corner of the block.   It all got cut and in time for me to get home and have some lunch before my appointment later in the afternoon.  I took a photo of the result, which is down below:

The one surprising thing was that every space in the front was taken, even the two handicapped spaces, so had to go to the back to park, and not the only car back there.  Luckily, some people had some work to do in the back room of the basement and the door at the top of the ramp was open, so I didn't have to walk around the whole building to get in.   And they were still working when I left, so that door at the top of the ramp was still propped open, so I could easily leave and get to my car in the back parking lot.  Home was usual, and I had time to eat before going out again.

What is left is the text area of the block, the lyrics of the song.   These were pencilled in roughly, so I know they will fit, but I need to redraw them before I cut them out.  I figure a day or two to take care of that, then I can print this up and see what I have and if I need to do more.  It will be interesting.