Ide(a)s of March

Hello, Hello!
I’m still enjoying my space here, and am figuring out the new-to-me platform. If you’re reading this now—thank you!

Here’s an update to my 100 Day Project: 2 more weeks of daily paintings! I’m a quarter of the way done, and I’m feeling the value of showing up for myself in this way everyday. The creativity and play-for-fun is coming back to me. Older ideas that I’ve been stewing on are closer to being realized. I’m losing my “inspired on demand” ethic and am thinking of the creative future. NOT EASY during this tumultuous time.

In my darker moments, I can’t imagine what the future even looks like—it’s the political shitshow that I worried about, and hate to see being realized. I have so much to say on this, but for now, will stay on the art.

A fun thing I’ve enjoyed doing, is recreating this old book cover into a book to hold all of these paintings. It’s a thing now! At the end of 100 days, I won’t have a bunch of loose sheets and it will be a perfect little package. Building a book backwards, based on the dimensions of the cover reminds me that I love building structures, and thinking 2 beats ahead in order to make the text block fit. It sparked the joy of early bookbinding days for me, and I’m grateful for that. Here’s a terribly shot video to show you!

Something else I’ve been meaning to get to in my painting practice, is creating multiples. I’d painted a portrait a few years ago, and I loved it. Someone bought it, and I was thrilled. When someone else asked if they could have a similar portrait, for some dumb reason I thought, “But I already painted that”. Like it wouldn’t be authentic or something if I were to repaint it? I’m not sure where I got that idea. To step back, and see the restrictions that I put on MYSELF is ridiculous. I’ve printed multiples for the past 25 years, but somehow a painting had to be impossibly unique. That’s some old, diamond-industry thinking. And while it would be technically impossible for me to create EXACT multiples, my thinking was pretty rigid.

And then I went to an art opening of painter Steve Keene. Some of you ‘90s darlings probably remember his work from Pavement’s Wowee Zowee album cover—he’s been around and steadily working for a long time. At this art opening, his work resonated with me on a whole new level. He was talking about his process—how he lines up multiple sheets at a time, and paints color-by-color across them all. I had to raise my hand in the questions portion, and ask him if he had ever been a printer. He HAD! He said no one had asked him before, but he worked for a short time as a screen printer in New York. It was clear as day to me, this fellow “spot printer” (letterpress and screen printers both print one color at a time)! It really has stuck with me, and I have yet to sit down with multiple panel to see what happens. If you haven’t heard of him before or need little inspiration, here’s a video on some of his work and process (safely skip ahead the first 2 minutes)—click here.

Lastly, if I didn’t need more proof from the Universe that it’s time to try this, I’ll post my latest thrift score. I found 18 of these unfinished quilt panels for 25 cents a piece. About a year ago, I listened to this story about an organization called the Loose Ends Project—they are a group of volunteers who finish people’s unfinished projects. As a longtime thrift shopper, I’m always seeing halfway done things. I always assume that the creator moved, got bored, or passed on. And since listening, I’m drawn to do the same. I don’t know who the person or people who created these was, but I love them. And look—multiples!

In the letterpress realm, I’m working on another thing I’ve been meaning to try—creating illustrations in a repeatable pattern and printing them. I don’t have anything to show yet, but it’s fun to pursue this without a computer. Years ago, I had seen Julia Rothman’s tutorial on how to do this, and it is speaking to me.

That’s it for now! Let me know if you’re working on anything fun. xo Victoria