Free Range

Thursday

Most of the day was spent carving out a pointing finger linocut. I learned a thing or two about transferring images and am excited to use the idea when I return to PNCA. The mood of the office was super relaxed.

Carla from school stopped by to see me and talk to Brady about the possibility of interning for a month until she heads back to PNCA. I'm not really sure how that will work as a new girl is starting up on Monday and I can't figure how Hammerpress will handle many more interns. Free work though, I'm sure Brady can't find too many reasons to turn that down.

At the end of the day, I had an excellent talk with Brady about how I am doing. Since it is midsummer, I wanted to know if I was fitting in alright and doing my work well. Not only did he say that I was, but he told me it took a year for Bobby to be allowed to use the platen press I've been using the last week or so. In otherwords, I totally fit in and have been learning quick enough that Brady feels confident in my skills.

We also chatted a bit about art print ideas. I asked him if I could print my zine cover at Hammerpress. Brady said yes and that I could start it Friday if I wanted to since he and Lindsay were leaving town for his parents. Eek!

Thursday night was laid back as well, and I hung out while Uriah's band practiced for their First Friday gig. Their sound is excellent and sets a good tone, but the singer kind of mucks it up with her whiny voice. Later, Jared and I watched the Colbert Report and talked for a bit before it was time to go to sleep.

Friday

Work was completely fun. The whole feeling was like we were already on holiday. Since Brady was leaving town, Hammerpress was not going to be open for First Friday and thus the usual First Friday jitters were absent. We could relax and enjoy our day.

When I arrived, Brady had cleared one of the presses for me to work on and I dove in. Jen took the day off and Bobby printed some notecards and then dabbled with an insert for awhile.

For my zine cover, I decided to start with Pecos Bill and print about as many as my tolerance and attention span would let me. I cut down 300-ish pieces of chipboard to start with. I'd been itching to try the upside down woodtype effect and so I found some pieces that Brady had tossed aside and assembled a background. I was able to print the white layer and a few orange before I was done for the day. I also assembled my title and a tag for some milagros I am going to sell at the Zine Symposium.

Joe stopped by before we closed and checked out my progress before heading out to First Friday festivities. I feel incredibly at home printing and have had about a million ideas burst through my head. I hope I have enough time to get them all down.

Around five-thirty I went home to change. I wore my 1950's reproduction dress that I'd found at the DAV with Halliday - sleeveless with yellow and green foliage. I added my wide black belt and heels and must say I looked smashing. I got many compliments.

I met Halliday at Hammerpress and we wandered around looking for Uriah's band, which we didn't find until their last two songs. There had to be at least ten other bands playing outside and every time I heard one, I would have sworn it was them, but it wasn't. On our search we ran into Ron, the guy who commissioned the EX Post Facto poster. He was hanging them up everywhere he could and even had printed some smaller versions for handouts. The poster looked pretty fabulous, even though it was just black and white.

Halliday's dad found us at Uriah's band and we went out from there. We looked at art until the galleries kicked us out. Personally, the display was much more interesting this month around. Maybe I was too quick to judge Kansas City's art scene. While there was still alot of craft, we did see some excellent paintings.

Halliday was interested in hitting up some Karaoke at the Brick, and that's where we spent the rest of the night. I didn't sing anything, but I did dance my pants off.

Oh and the exterminator came while I was at work. Hopefully this means less fleas....