This post is the fourth covering the prints I’ve made in January 2024. (See Part I, Part II, and Part III.) The idea was to create 30 prints in 30 days. (I know, January has 31 days.) I based this on Var Gallery‘s 30x30x30 Exhibition which I applied to, but alas, I was not accepted. No matter. I’ve made well over 30 prints in fewer than 30 days. Zing!
I am writing this on January 27th and right now I’ve got 41 prints done, and another four plates ready to go, so I’m going to guess the final total will be 45 prints. If you had asked me if I could create 45 prints in less than 30 days I don’t know that I would have said yes, but somehow I did it.
While I certainly made a lot of art, is it any good? Well, there are pieces I definitely really like, and at least a few people liked some pieces enough to offer me money for them, so that’s nice… But from a challenge standpoint, I would say I definitely enjoyed the challenge, and I can see a path forward with new art I want to create.
This month has been about creating a process that works for me. The process is one where I can work fairly quickly, but I’m also interested in slowing down. There is one design I worked on about a week ago and I haven’t finished it yet. Most of the designs were done in little time, sometimes it took less than 30 minutes to design something, produce the files, and then hit “Print” on the 3D printer so I would have a plate ready for later.
The “working really fast” method is great for kicking out ideas, but that refinement and iteration of ideas can get lost in the speed of moving fast. I think there were only a few designs where I made a second plate because something wasn’t quite right with the first one. Two were size issues and one or two were redesign issues.
I think what I’ve seen after creating all this art is that some ideas and methods and styles have emerged, and the next step is to push those further. I consider these all experiments to figure things out, and things did get figured out.
I think there’s a good variety of different pieces included in this post, and some of them are favorites of mine, and some mean something to me personally, and others are just “meh” because I don’t think I quite nailed it. It’s weird though, because I’ve somehow melded graphic design (with iteration) into a printmaking practice, which I don’t think people who do woodcut or linocut really deal with.
Alright, thanks for once again reading my rambles around art. I guess there will be one more post in this series since I’ve got a few more prints to do before the 31st rolls around. Stay Tuned!