Confessions of a first time – my prints are at the Firehouse

Confession #1: Excuses. Nine Thousand words, three media releases, a few blurbs, PR coordination and social media this and website that – the energies this require have kept me too long from this blogging pursuit. The positive thing is that the 9,000 words were for a paper/process manual on Direct-to-plate gravure I wrote for a research class. And yes, after sacrificing both weekends and printmaking time, I got the “A” I desperately wanted. The rest was all for my eight-to-fiver lifestyle compulsions.Confession #2: Passion. But even as the words dribble out from my brain fog and headaches, I still have pertinent happenings for this blog. This printmaking obsession that hoards my thoughts, my desires, my bank account, has new meaning and a new set of accomplishments to go with it. Feeling the itch to share my work in a non-cyber environment, I once again began the lottery of sending work to juried shows. But this time, rather than applying with my comfort-zone of photographic images, I sent prints. And in return, I received adrenaline-pumping validation.Confession #3: First Time. The first gallery to jury my prints into a show is the Arts Council of Baton Rouge’s Firehouse Gallery. The exhibition is called “Contemporary Print: An International Survey of Printmaking in 2016.” It opened yesterday and runs until Sept. 1,. The reception is Aug. 12 from 6-8 p.m. Did you think I meant some other first time? Confession #4: Pressed. A little personal trivia about my two pieces in the exhibition, other than they both feature birds and different processes: I used two very different presses to print them. “You Have A Friend in Monterey” was a drypoint I did last summer on my faithful pink-with-rhinestones toy press. And “Prospect Avenue No. 1,” is a photopolymer gravure I created this summer at the Direct-to-plate workshop in Santa Fe. The press for I used there was a lovely, adult-person, dare-I-say-the-unpolitically-correct “big-boy” Takach. "Propsept Avenue No. 1" features a view from my current dining room to the last house I lived in (yes, the latter is Boxwood." Also, please that "Winter Bird," a public art piece I did years ago, insisted in making an appearance (even if he was trying to avoid being photographed).Confession #5: Stalking. And so this post is not without a special thank you. Kudos to Kelsey Livingston, who curated/coordinated this impressive group of cool printmakers. I am humbled to be included. Maybe that sounds inauthentic, but coming off another rejection a few months ago (as it turns out, for the first time, I was ever so grateful not to be included in a show – let’s just say my work did not fit in at all), I am overwhelmed by the amazing artists in this show. Yes, I Facebook stalked them.Confession #6. Missing. As I will miss being physically at the exhibition (I am living vicariously through USPS), if anyone who reads this sees the exhibition, let us know what you think. Oh, and I will tell you about the other exhibition in another post.