It's raining today, which is fine as I'm resting. Here at the house we have a visitor with a puppy dog, which is fun. I call the puppy dog 'puppy' as he probably speaks Italian, so because he has no idea what it means, it's like a special nickname to him. He's very warm when he sits close to you.
This week I'm overwhelmed with projects at the studio, which is at times frustrating and at times invigorating. My method of maintaining sanity is to be in the present at all times. If I'm printing, that's what I need to do; if I'm etching, I need to only think about the etching. If I'm eating a turkey sandwich for Thanksgiving, I should be eating the sandwich and enjoying it.
Right now the count of what I need to finish is as follows:
Etching:
2 plates
Printing:
5 plates (at the very least two good proofs from each)
1 edition of 25 prints for the school archives
Artist's book (at least one copy of an edition of six):
8 plates - to be etched, carved
10 pages to be printed by hand
8 pages to be printed at the typographer
Bookbinding and boxmaking
All but the artist's book needs to be completed by the 4th. The artist's book I'll need completed by the 14th.
Our finals are scheduled for the 4th and 5th. A few officers from the region of Tuscany will administer the exams. We need to print for them in person an edition of three identical prints. During the process they will ask us questions about the steps we're doing and why we're doing each step. Additionally there's a written exam about techniques and the history of printmaking. The final part is a presentation of our works, where we explain our concepts and the techniques and materials we used for the prints.
On the 14th we'll have both our last day of studio and then in the evening the opening to our group exhibition in a gallery near the Duomo. The show will run for about a month. We are each exhibiting two etchings and then our works from the various seminars (mezzotint, woodcut, screenprinting, lithography, etc.)
A belated Happy Thanksgiving to all my American family and friends! I'm thankful to have all of you in my life and for the support and encouragement you've given me this year. And I'm grateful for this opportunity I've been given to be an artist living and working in such an inspiring city, developing new friendships, and learning about life and love and that the world isn't so large. We are all much more similar than we are different.
I'm off to the kitchen to make up a snack of some sort. I know I have some eggplant from the
alimentari (deli) and also
salame spagnolo (a salame with a smoked flavor and a rind of herbs). Bread, not so sure. We shall see.
Please send requests for any items you'd like me to bring back to the states in December. Restricted food items include anything meat, fresh veggies and soft, runny cheeses. However, baked goods, chocolate, hard cheeses, pasta, dried porcini, coffee, spices and gifty items are a-ok.
