8/12/10

Chapter 12, Golden Trees...the continuing saga

Last week was our annual family reunion at the summer house in VT. All the favorite rituals must be observed. We hike the top of Mount Mansfield, jump off high rocks into a clear mountain pool, swim among waterfalls, do the Ben & Jerry’s factory tour, hike Smuggler’s Notch, visit Brookfield Pond, walk Grandma’s dirt Road, feed Otis the girl goat at Morse Farm, play Dogopoly, and gather at a very long table on the screen porch for meals cooked on a circa 1930s gas range.

In between the rituals, I carve. Finally, at the end of the week, it’s finished:

I add the three little stems near the bottom after noticing that the leaves in that area of the print seem to be floating in mid-air.

We return home, and it’s off to the Genesee Center to print. I mix up a lovely warm dark amber color, and print. The first print reveals that there’s too much overlap of the new color into the tree trunks. I carve portions away, print again. Bette. Carve more, print again…

Wow, big improvement! One problem: the stems were too light, and the leaves showed right through them. I carve away, and print the edition without them.

Next I carve away everything I want to remain dark brown. I carve a stylized pattern of lines for bark texture in the trees, remove small branches and most of the forest floor, all of which I want to remain brown.

And back to the printing press. It’s the night before we leave for the Chautauqua show. The plan is to finish the edition, dry a few under Handyman Bob’s hot work lights, rush them to Cindy’s house at 6 am. Cindy The Wonderwoman has already agreed to rise early the next morning and frame a couple of Golden Trees so they can make their debut at Chautauqua. So this is my last chance to get it finished for the show…

I print the last color, darker brown. Immediately I realize that the bark texture I carved is all wrong. The trees have a distinctly Hanna-Barbera cartoon look. It’s Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park. Noooo!!!

Ok, no Chautauqua debut. I remove the trees entirely from the block, and just print the remaining details left on the block.

Printer’s Assistant Bob suddenly has an idea: since I’m only printing some leaves now, would I like to use a new color? Yes! Dark green would be ideal for these details. We decide this mishap is a happy accident. I mix dark green, and start printing. Looks good! Bob goes off to play poker with the boys, and I finish all 130 prints…

Next week I’ll carve a new block for that last printing, probably in expresso brown, mostly to darken and further define the trees. Sans cheesy bark patterns. And hopefully Golden Trees can make its debut the following weekend, at Arts At The Gardens…