Marshall Point Light

Having been encouraged by a number of folk to work on another block print after "Harbormaster's Workshop," I looked for a suitable subject in my hundreds of photos.  The picture needed to have an interesting geometry and to be able to resolve itself into black and white with some accounting for shading.  A photo I took last year of Marshall Point Light in Port Clyde (where the Monhegan Island ferry docks) seemed to qualify.  After sketching the photo onto the block using the grid method, I took knife to block then ink to block and the initial Artist Proof is shown above.  It is very satisfying to see the initial proof run validate the hours of cutting and trimming and all the big and little decisions of where to cut and how to cut.  Once cut, there is no un-cut process.  This afternoon I trimmed to size the paper for "Marshall Point Light" and prints will be available in an edition of 25. 

Cundy's Harbor - Harbor Works Gallery

The Block and Tackle restaurant in Cundy's Harbor was having their lobster specials again this week, so Alex and I headed down there for the $9.99 lobster platters - very delicious. Once dinner was done, we moved on to the harbor proper and visited the Harbor Works Gallery. There were two outstanding photography shows there - William Anderson's portraits of African-American life in the South in the 1970s and Lesley MacVane (photos) and Roger Berle (words) portraits of fishing life on Cliff Island Maine. Both shows were quite personal and moving. The view from the gallery of the harbor was outstanding as well. The show ends October 3rd so if you can, try to visit it. It is worthwhile.

Ten States + DC in 12 Days

On a 12 day road trip, Alex and I visited friends and family in NY, VA and NJ, toured lots of good art, and ate just a little too much "good" food.  Pictures of our road trip are found here.  On our way out of New England at the start of the trip, we stopped at the Worcester Art Museum which featured "pardon our appearance" galleries and only select elevators that worked. We were not enchanted.  However we were enchanted by the shows at the Visual Arts Center in Chautauqua NY, where the highlights were Steve McCurry's pphotography and the student art show.  Also enjoyable was the North Carolina Dance Theatre who are in residence at Chautauqua for the summer.  Then it was on to DC for the Chuck Close show at the Corcoran, an in-depth look at multiple processes of print making used by Mr. Close.  The sped-up video of the hand applied ink stenciling process for the Roy Lichtenstein portrait drew a crowd.  The Corcoran was free on Saturdays, yay.  And as luck would have it, there was another show of Chuck Close work at the VFMA in Richmond VA, some of which were the end product of the processes shown at the Corcoran.  The VFMA also had an excellent collection of Art Nouveau and Art Deco.  To cap the art portion of the road trip off, we visited the Crossroads Art Center in Richmond and caught a roomful of wonderful found metal and lighted wall sculptures (see picture above) by Kris Krull.  A lot of miles and worthwhile art.