Multiples of the same image is a common element in printmaking. The group of individual images is called the edition. There is a limit to the number in each edition and each individual print in that edition is numbered. Because of this, it's important to maintain records of each print.
I finally finished organizing the paperwork for the two exhibitions of my work that are taking place this Fall. The Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery (M.A.G.) is having a retrospective of some of my work and it opens October 10. A private gallery, the White Gallery, on Ross St. in downtown Red Deer has an exhibit of my wood engravings that opens September 4. There are 58 pieces to record and take to the M.A.G. (with at least one additional piece that is being borrowed from a collection) and 40 framed wood engravings to take to the White Gallery.
Until organizing these exhibitions, I hadn't worried much about keeping accurate records of my work; it's been something I automatically do. Oh, I've run into a couple of occasions when I seem to be missing a print or two, but that's been rare. The records I've kept over the years have moved from paper to computer. I'm at a big disadvantage in the computer department, especially when computer companies suddenly decide to eliminate a program I'm using and I can no longer open the document with the old or new program! When I receive word that a gallery has sold a piece and I don't enter that information right away in the correct file, that information is lost. That's when I long for the days of paper notebooks, rotary phones, letters with full sentences and stimulating discussions uninterrupted by Google.
The most traumatic moment in this ordeal came near the end of the list when I noticed that I had given the curator working for M.A.G. the wrong title to a drawing! It happened to be a drawing that was already framed and I had to take the frame apart and look at the back of the drawing to verify the title. (I usually print the title of all my drawings, on the back and luckily, I had done that on this one.) Now, as it turns out, I learned from a note from the curator, that the drawing was dropped from the list and I had forgotten about that change. All that work and stress for nothing!
It's a relief to have these all recorded, but I can't help but worry that my aging brain cells have screwed something up.
