frustration

Most of my prints for my exhibition are completed to my great satisfaction, but one has been giving me some trouble! It is the transparency layer for another Silent Messengers: Hoodoos. I've been proofing it a few times with successive adjustments and improvements. Today it took me four hours to get one print because of some problem with sending the file to the printer. This entailed several restarts of printer and computer and much impatient waiting. The resulting print proof still needed some more work which I've just now finished. So it's back to the printer in the morning, with hopes that "Lucy" (our pet name for the printer) will be more cooperative! Wish me luck.

Some say that working with computers and printers are prone to problems. Actually, even hand printed work can sometimes be frustrating, maybe with getting the right colour, the right technique of wiping the ink, the right paper and pressure, and so on. It's all about proofing whether it's a traditional print or an inkjet.

I still have to finish trimming the prints, attach the layers to each other, sign and document them. Even if I don't get the entire set in each edition done, but have one of each ready for the show, I can finish doing that later after the show is hung.

Yesterday I was in the rather uncomfortable role of photographer's model! I've never enjoyed having pictures taken of me! One of the North Shore newspapers sent a photographer to take photos of me in front of some of my prints for their arts page, for which I'm very grateful of course. He was patient and friendly and made me relax, so we shall see how that turns out.

It has amazed me how much creative energy I have maintained the past two months. This morning I woke up naturally before 5:00 am, and was in the studio a bit after 7, but the frustrations today have felt stressful. I'm going out for a vigorous walk in the rain now!