STEAMROLLER

After a few days of physical, mental, and emotional numbness, the first sensations are returning to my body--for one thing, I'm regaining mobility in my hand again.

Last Saturday I participated in STEAMROLLER, a fundraising event for RedLine and Danceworks.  I have had a pretty stressful last few weeks and having over a hundred hours of carving packed into my schedule was certainly no small thing...and perhaps the bane of every printmaker's existence is that even when the plate is done the work has only begun, because then it's time to print!

Turns out printmaking isn't as simple as running your plate over with something heavy, either, and for a while my tense, sleepless mind could hardly handle dealing with all the things that can and do go wrong when printing, from under-inking your plate, to dried out ink fixating to your plate, to uneven pressure, to push marks, to inexplicably large sections of the plate just not printing, etc.  But it's okay!  Because in the end my 12 hours there were totally worth it; the event was a success and I had a sense of immense satisfaction looking at all the prints on display for the silent auction that evening.

Video footage from the event:


Making Steamroller Art at Redline Milwaukee from ThirdCoast Digest on Vimeo.
Read the event article by ThirdCoast Digest here.

Documentation:

Finished woodblock.

Other amazing woodblocks at the event 
(pictured blocks by John Hitchcock and
Drew Iwaniw from Madison).

Printing!

Progress shot of inking my block.  
Photos by John Hitchcock. 

Finally feeling happy for the first time in days. It's 
that "Oh, my God, I forgot how sexy woodblocks 
look" feeling when you ink up your block for the
very first time, an emotional high soon to be
demolished by that first print that doesn't 
turn out right.

I have to say, had I gotten nothing else out of the 
event, I am happy to have photographic proof
that inking a giant woodblock has a way of 
making a person look seriously badass. 

. . . 

Am I the only one who thinks so?

Overview of printing.
Photo by John Hitchcock.

Nick Francel came up from St. Louis for the
event. Here is his absolutely amazing woodblock.

Nick inking up his block.

Checking out the finished print.

The silent auction begins.

My finished print!

View of STEAMROLLER from above.

Thank you to RedLine, Danceworks, and FLUX Design for making this event happen, to Kari Couture and Kimberly Weiss for inviting me to be a part of it, and to Nick Francel for driving six hours to participate and commiserate with me in those final hours of carving, printing, and hair-tearing over why we chose this profession.