Monday, March 24, 2014

project 52:26 (midpoint!)


(lino block and acrylic on watercolor paper)

Here we are, week twenty-six: halfway through project 52. Can you believe it? I really can't. In some ways, I kind of feel like I've been doing this forever.

This project has been great so far. Sure, there have been stressful weeks, when things haven't turned out and I've scrapped ideas and started over - and every weekend there is that growing urgency around the question, "what am I going to do for this week's postcard?" But, by and large, this project has been great. I'm exploring media I haven't used a lot, or have never used before. I'm getting a better sense of what works, graphically, on such a small canvas, and it's just plain good to complete something every week. I also feel like it's doing the real work that I hoped for: building connection with my sibling.

Week 26 is another lino block carved and printed with an acrylic printing ink/paint (I don't quite remember, other than it's meant for printing). As I printed test swatches, Cass looked and said, "it needs something green," which is funny, because that is exactly what I had been thinking as I'd been carving the block. Seriously. So I painted - rough and loose and fast - a kind of free interpretation of a delta maidenhair fern (one of my favorites) over this, using acrylic paint that I'd thinned with acrylic medium.

The semi-transparent effect resulted in a card that could barely be photographed well, much less scanned, but I found it interesting, and I think it totally works. Of course, cards that scarcely be photographed, much less scanned, are, obviously, not cards that can be posted to Society 6. So you know what that means, kids: no prints again this week. Hopefully next week, depending on what happens in the next 24-48 hours with this week's card!

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