Week Two of Linoleum Block Cutting was finishing the sampler and printing. My sampler had me conceptualizing, sketching and using nearly all of the gouges – a real run through the creative gauntlet, but a practical adventure! The printing exercise is more practical adventuring in water-based ink, several kinds of papers and different methods of …
Creative Pursuits
Block Cutting at GCAE
Writing is my craft, but block cutting is becoming a creative outlet. It is the art that set this ship sailing – a quiet, solitary process. A little physical, a little analytical, and a lot of faith. Last Fall I took a Block Cutting and Spoon Printing class at Genesee Center for the Arts and …
Fall Schedule
I have no idea what new T.V. shows are on this Fall. I’m only vaguely aware that it is “Fall T.V. Season”-time because I see school buses in the morning traffic and people are talking about football again – I can put two-and-two together. We don’t even get a TV book in our newspaper anymore. …
Summer Classics: The Sci-Fi Blockbuster
One night during the summer of 1977, my mother hosted a Tupperware Party and my sister and I were packed off to the movies with Daddy. I remember that I wore white plastic barrettes and that I stood through much of the movie with my arms draped over the empty seat in front of me …
Green Thumb
Our backyard garden is 12 feet by 16 feet, dug out about 6 years ago. That season we harvested enough pickling cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes to put up over a dozen jars of sweet pickles, plus equal batches of tomatoes and salsa. Our little patch of earth on our tenth of an acre semi-urban lot …
A Letterpress Vision
My last Letterpress project did not turn out as I had hoped. My Alphabet set in Onyx, plus numbers and symbols, was, I decided, about as exciting as an eye test. My classmates’ Alphabets are a funky arrangement of large wood type in “Condensed Gothic,” a clever poem in “Valiant,” and a sweet little play …
We interrupt this program for breaking news
Validation is powerful. Late last year, in the infancy of SuddenWriteTurn and during my growing realization that writing is my calling, The Husband came across an announcement on a local news website. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation was holding an essay contest: Share your positive and inspirational stories of your experiences in …
Now I know my A, B, C’s…Letterpress Week 6
My mother was once told by a school evaluator that her kindergartner had a “slight fine-motor disability;” I have never been able to color inside the lines, I am not to be trusted with dispensing superglue, and it takes me a few tries to put my house key in the lock. I suspect this generalized …