Please Don't Eat the Ink

It’s the last day of my Spring Break, which, when you teach on the quarter system, isn’t really a break—more of a week to prep for the new term of classes. If you are like me, you let your seven-year-old stay up late every night while you work on various drawing projects and school preparations, all while watching loads of TV. Hank is sad that he has to have a normal bedtime tonight, and I wish I had another week to prepare for the new school term, but here we are! LET’S DO THIS, SPRING TERM!

One of the things I did over spring break was make a print for the upcoming Outlet Love Letter to Riso show, opening this Friday. I always joke during workshops about how riso ink looks like frosting or peanut butter and how you absolutely should not eat it. So I decided to fully commit and make a giant NOTE TO SELF: you cannot eat riso ink. Not a little bit. Not even if it looks delicious. Just…don’t.

If you think printmaking jokes are funny, you’re in luck because I just listed these for sale. If you’re in Portland, you can pick one up in person at the opening on Friday. 

The official Riso account chimed in on the comments when I posted this on Instagram and, in fact, confirmed that you can’t eat the ink. I still want to make a bumper sticker that says “I ATE THE INK AT OUTLETPDX” because I think it’s funny, and printmaking jokes are the best, and I think those are two very good reasons to make a bumper sticker. STAY TUNED.

I went to the new location of P_A_R_T_L_Y yesterday to check out an art show and just poke around at all the goodness they carry. I walked out with these appropriately named Magic Ink markers. The packaging is so satisfying, the ink is super even and crisp, and the STINK is both INSANELY strong and yet deeply intoxicating.

Immediately, I had a flashback to my grandma’s basement studio when I was a kid, so the smell must be connected to her spray fixative, which she applied without ventilation, and I reveled in the stench. I have done the LIGHTEST of research on this tool and found that they have been around since the 1950s, so maybe my grandma did use these markers? Maybe this is what I was smelling? It was such a specific smell, and it really transported me to her studio. Scent is so magical. I had no idea I would be zapped back to the summer of 1983, when I spent two weeks in Kenosha, Wisconsin, staying up late with my Grandma in her studio while she drew at her drawing table and we watched late-night TV together. Immediate purchase. Plus, the markers are great. They BLEED like a MF’er, but they are oil-based and can write on any surface. They will fit in perfectly with our workshop art supplies at Outlet and will be so happy alongside our Mr. Sketch Scented Gel crayons, scratch-and-sniff sticker collection, and glue sticks that smell like baked goods.

Perhaps you are sensing a THEME.

One throughline in my month of Daily Purchase Drawings is me thinking about my backyard. Currently, all I want to do is play in the dirt, think about plants, and then read my new paperback of Lonesome Dove. Lonesome Dove kept showing up in my algorithm, so I texted my mom to see if I could borrow her copy to which she told me that this is one of her favorite books, but she no longer owns the edition that I remember her having (and, also where was I when she unloaded all of her books? I missed an opportunity to sentimentally HOARD). Then I went to the library, and it would be WEEKS, maybe MONTHS until I could get my hands on a copy (seriously, what is going on), so then I finally bought one so I could immediately inject Larry McMurtry into my veins. It’s tempting to start the miniseries, but I want to read the book before I dive into Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Duvall-land. And also an early 20s Ricky Freaking Schroder?

March was filled with many fun freelance jobs (thank you, freelance gods), and I have earmarked April to work on my 20-years of Daily Purchase Drawing book, which I have been thinking about, circling around, and taking notes on for the last year or so. We are doing the Seattle Art Book Fair the second week of May, and I DESPERATELY want to have a few copies of this MYTHICAL OBJECT to magically appear so I can share. So, April is when I stop being polite and start getting real… about making this freaking book.