AT LAST

After about three months of trying this and trying that, I was finally able to push through. The edition of another Alien of Planet Earth was printed. It was an image that I was constantly unhappy with and wasn't confident that it was going to work. Over the months, as I was engraving, proofing, studying the results and engraving more, I didn't feel it was working. Then yesterday, around midday I inked up the press and pulled another proof to see the results. Bingo! It was a weird feeling to be looking at something that I had had doubts about after all the pervious proofs and suddenly like it. I had made some radical changes. It was as if it was someone else’s and I had never seen it before! I decided to go ahead and run the edition. Of course, time will tell, but it satisfied me in that moment, and that's all I care about. If you're interested, it's on the website: http://www.telusplanet.net/public/jimwest/rhinobeetle.html

NOT A HIATUS AFTER ALL

Well, I've decided that there hasn't been a hiatus, as I thought. I'm simply "acting my age" by slowing down in the ol' rockin' chair. Making a Mountain of a Molehill took five months to complete, then five days after the edition was run, I started some sketches for an idea that Darrel Morrow suggested. We were discussing the legal term,"statute of limitations". If the third t in "statute" is not emphasized, most people, hearing the term for the first time, would think the word was "statue". That was the beginning of Statue of Limitations and about two and a half months later (a few days ago) I finished printing that edition. Here it is. I've added it to my website, with a commentary.

Now, something has just happened that I don't believe has happened to me before. I was going back and looking at Making a Mountain of a Molehill a few minutes ago and suddenly "saw" another way to "say" the same thing. I'm anxious to try it, but I'm afraid it's not going to be different enough. But I'm afraid if I don't try it out, it'll nag me. Maybe this is all part of these "senior moments" "they" keep talking about.

...AND THE HIATUS CONTINUES...

The studio work routine I've been using for decades continues to be on "pause" mode. Carol's problems with dementia reached a point where the hospital was no longer an answer to solving her problem and it was necessary to move her to a facility with permanent and proper care.  An available facility was found south of Red Deer and our sons Kurt and Gregg moved some items of furniture and clothing there and Carol is now there. When space is available in a Red Deer facility she will be moved again. The processes involved to make this happen are, of course, going to be taking priority over any work in the studio.

Meanwhile, through all this, last October the Society of Wood Engravers put out a challenge for members to enter a 'Seasons Project". I volunteered to participate in the "Summer" portion of the project. I was then struggling to stay focused on an idea in my "See What I'm Saying?" series. The sketches I had begun seemed like they might fit the "Summer" theme (if a stretch of interpretation was allowed, and it was). A few days ago I ran the edition of "Making a Mountain of a Molehill".