It’s good seeing robins hopping around the neighborhood – you know it’s spring!
This weekend is going to be a busy one as I prepare for the next two weekends of inspirational getaways! Tonight I will be matting and preparing art to send to Kansas City!
On Saturday the Craft Mafia is holding a show where crafters will be selling their stash of unwanted craft supplies. This is a fantastic idea, since I tend to over buy inventory on crafts and stash them away only to buy more later! It will be held at the beautiful Pulaski Field House on Saturday – a perfect afternoon on what looks like to be a rainy day.
On Sunday at 11am I am doing a little gocco workshop at the gallery. I will be also bringing in some wood, vintage book pages, gouache, paintbrushes and whatever else I can find to print on. So if you want to give the Gocco a whirl, swing on by! I am trying to start a little illustration to print that day.
You all know I like to kick it old school. So much that I would turn in my 8.75 hours a day staring at an Apple monitor for the sweet click of a Chandler and Price press or Vandercook Universal I for 12 hours a day. A friend was kind enough to give me a book the other day called Graphic Arts by Frederick D. Kagy, which is all about graphic design circa 1970s.
Kagy, Fredrick D. Graphic Arts. South Holland, Illinois, 1970.
I was happy to find visuals and text on step-by-step set up, like setting up the gauge pins, feeding in the paper, and cleaning the press. I have a huge learning curve on this baby, which is both exciting and leaves me a bit nervous. I’m praying for the best! I feel like moving day for my press is quickly approaching and as much as the men in my life (who love the challenge of moving heavy things) want to take over the moving, I think I should leave it to professionals. I keep having weird dreams revolving around the moving of my one ton baby.
How many other people hate using a mouse? I seriously cannot even use anymore, I’ve become too spoiled using a wacom tablet.
Happy Friday! Another weekend packed with running around. I always feel like life is three steps ahead of me – most of us probably do. Any suggestions on how to catch up?
I’ve been focusing on painting for my Old Town School of Music in May. Here is a sneak peak of a piece I just finished. Girl and Fiddle, acrylic on board
detail
Hope everyone has a lovely weekend!
p.s. I just joined twitter:
http://twitter.com/cindytomczyk
hmmm…
It always surprises me that there are, by far, more women in my letterpress classes than men. Where are the boys? I would think working on heavy industrial machines would be a huge plus for our beloved guys. Of course, Drew can sew better than I can and when it comes to buttons popping off my pockets – he’s a pro, while I sit there and watch in awe. (Despite my mom’s many attempts at teaching me the ways of the sewing machine, I could never really pay attention.) I feel like my place is definitely in a print shop working on machines older than my grandparents, so you can imagine my delight when I came across Ladies of Letterpress. It’s like the Facebook for letterpress printers! What a great community where one can post videos, upload photos, questions, posts, and update a profile. I’ve been watching many videos on moving presses, which is what I will be doing next month. (slight “eeeeek.”)
I took today off of work mostly because I knew it was going to be a nice day. I made myself go downtown to take care of some business shortly after waking up and everyone there was just as happy. It must be the weather. Not only was everyone chipper, but taking care of business ran smoother than I expected! (maybe it was the fact that I went early.) Once I got home, I got right to painting. I am even putting freelance off today to work on what I want and it feels good. progress
After business was attended to, I went over to the Wrigley Building to say hi to some friends. The Wrigley Building is, by far, the best place to work on a nice day. The building sits at this nice angle on the river and the Magnificent Mile, which is ideal for morning sun. It also helps that it is on Michigan Ave because the energy spills off the street. The best afternoon breaks are taken by the river, watching the world. >le sigh<
If two freelance checks show up in my box today that would really be the cherry on top. I’ve been patiently waiting. Back to painting.
Alright – the names drawn for the Bluegrass Birds letterpress print are ———–>
———–>
Kerry, from the Green Paper Company + Mrs. Mommy.
Kindly, email me your addresses at ctomczyk@gmail.com.
Now I will leave you with some music I’ve been digging lately – a music video from Blitzen Trapper. I just got their album along with the Handsome Furs album from Sub Pop and I LOVE both.
I should really be working on a freelance project right now, but I wanted a little time to relax before getting to work. I printed this last Friday on a Vandercook Universal I. Two color letterpress on Mr French Paper envelope. with a Green Paper Company envelope.
I have two mini vacations in a row that I am looking forward to taking! Both are going to be inspirational trips that I really need – especially now that we are in the cusps of spring. I need to shed my winter all work and no play skin. The first is going to be a little letterpress adventure and the next weekend I will be traveling to Kansas City for the art openings and also participating! Which means, I need to get to matting and framing and mail most of it out. I heart Kansas City. It’s the perfect city for an artist to call home.
As soon as Drew comes home, I will pull the names for the art giveaway.
Last weekend I decided to go on a lil’ mini adventure to Evanston Book + Paper, where I took an amazing Coptic Stitch book binding + gocco embellishment day long class. I highly recommend taking a class there. Little things like this really keep me going – get my creative mindset flowing! I was a nice break to the weekend and to hang out with a group of creative gals. Of course, I had in mind to give the book to Drew for our five-year anniversary this past Friday, which I did and he loved. He was wondering what secret mission I was on all day last Saturday. It was lovely going out to a different part of town and exploring. I took the Metra up north and the Purple line back. Sometimes I get worried that I have explored every inch of this world I live in and it’s exciting knowing there is so much more!
With Drew it does not seem like five years! I think what really gave us a solid foundations to our relationships was the distance. It taught me, above all, patience and he is extremely patient and calm, unlike me who is always running around like a chicken with her head caught off. Plus, there was something adventurous about flying back and forth all the time and usually this left for two solid weeks together. We know right now our lives are all work, work, work, but we have a few plans, so that, hopefully, things will balance out and priorities will shift. He makes me a happy little camper and I am so glad we met those last few months in art school and it all worked out!
In other news, I need to find some time to rephotograph a bunch of work and adjust my websites. I need to get Paper Parasol Press up and running and figure out a way I can include a “letterpress” section to my Cindy Tomczyk website. When it comes to websites, I feel like I need a solid 3-weeks to work on it. I think my friend Dana and I have a studio in our grasp on Ravenswood! We decided today to go for it. More on that later. Time for a rainy Sunday of making clients happy.
I did these the other day. This month, I would like to pull two names for the art giveaway! I will have Drew Lee draw the names on Friday March 13th! Just leave a comment below with your name and or email. Bluegrass Birds, 2 color letterpress print on Mr. French paper, 8″ X 10″
The banjos are always a popular print. I first did these as a gocco print. Find more prints in the shop.
I can’t believe it is already March! I keep thinking that in a few weeks the snow should melt away and it will smell like spring. I really need to get working on my paintings for a few upcoming shows!
