05/02/2006: "T minus 4 days"

I had a productive weekend though I wasted a huge chunk of time on Sunday trying to get prints ready (cutting foam core and double mattes and using my shrink wrapper for the first time). The end results are pretty pathetic, shrink wrapping is hard work. My house is a total nightmare too, with stacks of matte board and foam core and frames and paintings to and fro.

Rob stopped by Sunday night to give me the keys to the gallery and wanted to see the paintings (theoretically I can start hanging any time) and I was so embarrassed at the state of my house, it’s basically morphed into one huge studio.

I had today (Monday) off from work and I was able to get a lot more painting finished. I keep wasting time on one painting that isn’t working though, rather than spreading my time evenly and finishing up ones that are working. I’ve decided I won’t touch said painting again, nor will I put it in the show, although ironically I got an email from the Alaska Women’s Network today that they want to publish the original version of that painting (the one Holly said looked like there was a cinnamon bun where her head was) for something they’re doing on their website. Go figure!

wetlands-southeast-alaska-pink-cloud (37k image)

Replies: 6 Comments

on Tuesday, May 2nd, ann said

Good luck in the next few days! Let me know if you need any help...

on Tuesday, May 2nd, Elise said

Hi Ann, thanks! I may need help transporting the paintings to the gallery, my tracker is so small it always takes 5 or 6 trips. I was thinking Thursday night for that...would you be available?

on Tuesday, May 2nd, berry bowman connell said

Shrink wrap? Isn't that the stuff ya use and then need a shrink t'help calm ya down?
No....
I saw two things advertised not too long ago...one was that shrink wrap stuff and the other was the small, medium and large bags and those just seal like a great big ziploc baggie thing.
But, y'all do pictures, which brings me to ask, what fer the shrink? For the lil potteries y'do?
When I bought some pottery thingies from a fair down this-a-way, the lady wrapped each piece as if it were gold, and then put it in a lil bag, and dang! I carried it just like she had wrapped it, which, I gotta tell ya, is very unlike me.
I'm kinda clumsy, a lil on the "hick" side, if'n ya know what I mean. Oh, I can clean up, but, that ain't the thing.
Seems like when ya watch a person give such care to a thing, and you're the one who bought it, all clumsiness goes out the window, and great care becomes, I dunno,...addictively contagious.

But, about the picture that's giving ya trouble.

Y'know, of course, that I'm one of those guys who thinks that the faster y'can get it done and left alone the better. On the other hand, ol' Cezanne had a few that he spent YEARS on...some he never did finish.
So, we now zap to the far furure where an art dealer from the Met is speaking to some guy from Christies'....
"You say she got comments about the hair looking like a cinnamon bun? What? Do you mean like the Star Wars girl?"
"Yes. And it bothered her so, she just kept working on it year after year."
"But, didn't some women's group from the time use it for their article and make her famous after that?"
Yes, but, she still wanted to work on it. She died saying,' it's just not right, yet' and her family had it framed in gold to display at her funeral. That was back in 2136, and it turned out she was the longest living artist of all time."

on Tuesday, May 2nd, Elise said

Hey Berry, the shrink wrap is for the reproduction prints.

I use foam core that isn't acid free so I have to cut a sheet of acid free barrier paper and tape that to the foam core first using acid free framers tape. Then the print goes down, and (if matted, the matte) then you put it between two squares of archival, acid free shrink wrap, seal the edges using a hot rod, and then use a heat gun to shrink the wrap until it snugs up around the piece and creates a shiny plastic glass-like barrier around the image.

The hot rod used to seal the edges in my system doesn't work very well, so although the front looks nice, the backs of them look pretty terrible. I decided that the show is about my current paintings, not prints from other shows, so I may not even include them at all.

Oh, and the story about the elise of the future is pretty funny. Now that so many artists keep online journals there will be a lot less for art historians to wonder about; I predict that the mystic of the artist will evaporate.

It's a nice fantasy though!
;)

on Tuesday, May 2nd, holly said

I saw Ms. Cinnamon-Bun Head in an Edward Weston photo. I was shocked that a real human can actually strike that pose. :O

on Tuesday, May 2nd, Elise said

I will spare you the photos I took of *me* in that pose, as they would haunt your nightmares for years to come I'm sure. Have you seen the version with the face showing? I'm not sure that I like it as much but I've decided that I won't waste another minute on this one as it has caused problems from the start.