So what good is a studio if you never go into it? What good is a job that pays enough for you to buy your art supplies if you don’t actually use them? Important questions that I started asking myself as 2011 started winding down. Since a project that I did in November of 2010, I hadn’t done much art. I blamed it on getting a new job and wanting to settle in. Then I blamed it on being too tired once I got home from work and the gym. And then I blamed it on being uninspired. All that blame, and you know what good it did me?
None! I still wasn’t making any art! And it was my own fault, because I simply wasn’t going into the studio to do anything. When I was in school, I was making things all the time. I had to – they were assignments. I was being held accountable for the work, and everything had a deadline. Since graduating, I’ve had no assignments, and really no deadlines. And it’s showed in the lack of things coming out of my studio.
Enter the Great Print Project of 2012! It’s a project that will essentially look and act like “homework” for me and will result in me actually making things again. So what is it exactly?
Over the next year, I am challenging myself to create one print a week. Well, one edition of prints. Small editions, at least to start. So by this time next year, I should have right around 50 prints (52 if I’m successful!). For selling, for putting into shows, whatever I decide. But the main point is that I’ll actually be doing something again. It’s a rather intoxicating, exciting idea. And because nothing in this world happens any more without the internet seeing, I’ll be blogging my way through it. Why not, right?!
Official Stuff: For the purposes of this project, my “weeks” will start on Monday and end on Sunday, giving me the full weekend to finish, if I need. The aim will be to blog about the previous week’s print by Tuesday of the following week. On your mark, get set…
WEEK ONE!
I admit that I had a hard time getting started. I had two ideas before the one I finally settled on, and this was the “I must do SOMETHING!” decision. It’s a celebration of New Year’s Eve, with the streamers and confetti of midnight. For this one, I tinted the paper and used quite a lot of iridescent inks. In fact, I’m not sure there’s a color in the piece that doesn’t have some shimmer to it!
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