Mushrooms!

What a crazy few weeks this has been. But enough of that.

Since I last posted, I have learned one new printing technique (two weeks ago) and gone on one hike (today).

Here is my first reduction print ever. I just wanted to whip something out in a spare 15 minutes, and was amazed at my success. I was just going for a proof of concept project. If I'd known it could look so good I would have been a lot more thoughtful about what I carved and about registration. But then I wouldn't have had the time to do it at all.

I carved a very bad mushroom and a little bit of detail into Speedball's soft pink rubber block stuff and stamped it in teal. I stamped again next to the original to clean the block. Then I carved some more and stamped over the first prints in purple. (These being the only functioning ink pads I have on hand.)

A huge pay-off for such simple labor! I am imagining what I might be able to accomplish with some actual planning.

Today I went out to find real mushrooms with someone who knows about mushrooms. She knew all the names. I don't remember any of them.

Except for the morel. Which we left in place.

Packed the cameras

and made it back to the car

before the clouds burst

So I tell myself

I keep thinking that if I just organized my time better, if I stopped watching a few minute's-worth of funny videos before settling down to work, only read books in that last nearly asleep twenty minutes before bed, and skipped facebook entirely, I would have a lot more time to write and work on art projects. So I tried it. Dropping extraneous entertainment, that is. (Except for the reading...books are friends! So not extraneous at all.)

It didn't really make much difference. Sometimes, I really do work that many hours, and as it turns out, I'm only spending 15-30 minutes/day with Studio C and movie previews and catching up with other people. I could post a bad haiku with that time, and it would be a worthy use of time. But so is taking a break.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

scary politics:

rude potential presidents

no one to vote for

Final parting

                                                                          she asks:
                                                                          when will he find rest?
                                                                          whenever you can come
                                                                          I say
                                                                          the sun is blind
                                                                          the clay won't mind
                                                                          whenever you can come
                                                                          she asks:
                                                                          will tomorrow do?                       
                                                                          tomorrow or the next
                                                                          I say
                                                                          one night or three
                                                                          the same to me
                                                                          tomorrow or the next
                                                                          she asks:
                                                                          what shall we wear
                                                                          the colors of your heart
                                                                          I say
                                                                          love and tears
                                                                          and tattered years
                                                                          the colors of your heart

Dismay

wrong priorities:
all glory for the party!
the country? who cares.