Loose ends

Last but not least!

This time of the year, I usually tie up loose ends. After the dust settles from various projects and before my mind races on to the next creative mayhem, I tend to figure out what I need to finish. Shamefully, this year's Chinese Lunar New Year print was still patiently waiting to be carved after being drawn on the block in January.

Printmakers, being a generous and somewhat odd bunch, tend to exchange prints for no good reason at all. We do it often just for the pleasure of owning other artist's work. In fact, I will just boldly state that bartering art with other artists is much more satisfying than exchanging art for money. In any case, one of the yearly traditions for the group of happy printmakers in http://barenforum.org is to exchange tiny prints with the Chinese Lunar New Year theme. Every year!

Chinese Lunar New Year

Now for the creative mayhem thing...I rarely ever actually send the critter that the calendar prescribes. My interpretation of the Year of the rooster was a road runner or Desert Rooster; for the Year of the Rabbit I chose to deconstruct my rabbit (poor thing) and the Year of the Snake turned into an old Hopi Snake Dance:

Desert Rooster

Discombobulated Rabbit

Rattlers

Year of the Horse

Last year I took my Mami on a glorious trip to one of my favorite cities, San Francisco California. On the glorious voyage (sorry for the repetition, the Pacific Coast Highway requires the adjective glorious) we stopped at the Monterey Aquarium. One of the highlights for me were the deliberate and gracious sea horses, dancing their sweet dances with each other; gently and unashamedly wrapping themselves in each other, fluid love...just beautiful.

I know that living in the American West I probably should have made some galloping wild mustangs, but that would have been bordering on the normal. My year of the horse print HAD to be about the sea horses, so here it is Fluid Love, a tribute to these amazing creatures.

They were fruitful and multiplied! A day's work

Fluid Love, wood engraving 6 x 4 inches,
for the Year of the Horse print exchange

OFF MY PLATE!!! New Year, New Resolution

Last year I started out the year calling it a simpler year...or was that the year before that?! Hmmmm...see!? I'm already in trouble.
I am declaring this 2012 the OFF-MY-PLATE year. I'm deep into a bad case of project indigestion. I have one print to finish for an exchange and a commission for a block/print set.
And that's it, that IS IT!!!
Oh yeah, the puzzle project yet to be finished and printed...sigh... http://puzzleprints.blogspot.com


My to-do list is ridiculous with projects so old that I had to shut off the reminders in my Outlook so that I wouldn't see the annoying: "eight months overdue" notices.
My website in dire need of revising, my books in need of revising...hey, just those two things could take me the rest of the year.

Goldwell: Red Barn from the East

But no, no no nononono!!! I have little notebooks and pieces of paper hanging all over my very disorganized studio (in need of revision as well) that will keep me busy until I'm old and gray...make that older and grayer.
Blocks like the Goldwell series (above) yell at me every morning to get my act together or they're walking off. My piles of wood are dusty and sad.

So that's it, I'm done with the new and on with the old. Or something like that.
2012, Chinese Lunar New Year of the Black Dragon's Den, which is where I'm going to mercilessly toss anyone that tries to recruit me for any project that isn't my own. And that includes me.

2012, get off OFF MY PLATE!!! year.

You heard it here first.

Discombobulated Bunnies

It's been "that" kind of a year, this 2011. I find myself finishing projects late, chucking others off my to do list altogether and just generally feeling out of control.
Contrary to popular belief, I am not a control freak; that would imply I wish to control others around me. No no no...I just enjoy being under control, like...myself and my life. Unless I'm skiing downhill of course, but that's another matter.

So the Chinese Lunar New Year starts in February, yeah, like LAST February and every year I make a promise to some 50-70 printmakers all over the world that I will send them a Year of the- post card (http://barenforum.org). We all make that promise to each other. Quite fun to receive these all year long with postage from everywhere, some in envelopes, some in baggies, some just so.

My post-cards went out last week, naked as a jaybird this year but surely they will make it "there" safely, won't they? Surely. It's been that kind of a year...

In any case, here is my Chinese Lunar New Year representation of this crazy rabbit year. Officially crossed off my to do list.

Deconstructed Rabbit 2011

Go ahead, scan the QR!