My primary purpose in starting to write this bog was to give readers some idea of the life of an artist, and the way in which art fits in (or doesn’t) with the other parts of life. Perhaps there is one aspect of that promise I have not really managed to make good. There can be parts of artistic activity what are, frankly, boring.
Of course there are the exciting bits that make it all worthwhile, and the reasons we took up art in the first place. Having ideas for a creative piece, and above all, experiencing the joy and excitement of achieving these, are certainly a party of the deal. I do get so excited by a project that I get up in the middle of the night in order to get something down, and ensure I don’t forget it. There is the sheer pleasure of becoming involved in the medium with which I’m working. Certainly there is that wonderful sense, finishing a piece, that I have actually managed to realise my original vision. There is the gratification of the feedback I get from people who appreciate what I do. I don’t want to forget all of that. Nevertheless, at the end of today I feel that I have to admit that now and then “life get’s tedious, don’t it”.
This morning I collected the printed edition of a series of images I did earlier in the year. As I drove back to Bradford from Sowerby Bridge there was a sense of excitement that I was, at last, going to see the realisation of a project that has been developing and growing throughout the year. I had forgotten the labour that is involved in finishing a print edition for public presentation.
Each print has to be checked, signed, dated and marked with its number in the series. As I am putting together a set of twelve prints, and not just multiple copies of a single image, they have to be grouped and put in order. There is also a problem I’ve not really encountered before. Because these pieces were printed onto a large roll of paper, and not single sheets, even ‘though they have been cut into separate images they still bear the curvature of the original roll. They have two be stacked under weights in order to straighten them out.
Each set of prints will have with it a poem, the words of a song, a technical note about the production process and a short explanatory statement. These I’ve had to print off at home, and they have to be integrated with each set of images. Of course, when the prints have been flattened out I will have to spend more time packing them into their presentation boxes.
It is work that demands care and attention to detail, and it all contributes to the interest and attraction of the project, but I have to admit that it is a tedious way of spending a day. I’m straining at the leash to get back to painting.