WWBFD - Part 5: My Thanksgiving Day Feast of Printing!

Yep, it was a long day, but I am done with the printing. Woo hooo!! At 9:30 am I start carving the 3 blocks I have left. I am blessed by the stars and they carve well and I like how they look. I have never carved 3 blocks at once, and somehow I do it in less than 2 hours. This is amazing. The hardest part is little girl in "Make New Friends." (Little Debbie? Could be.) So of course I do that block last . That's usually how I do it - easy first to build up my nerve or something.

I'm at the IPRC at noon, and print two of the 3 blocks before I leave for Thanksgiving dinner. I call my parents in NC while I am printing and talk on speaker phone. I know they won't mind, as they are gearing up for a 3 day craft show they do every Thanksgiving weekend. I helped them last year - it was CRAZY! It's nice knowing they are doing their craft thing too today - even though they are thousands of miles away, I feel connected by that. 

I am extra grateful to have someplace fun to go today. And it's a nice bike ride there on the Springwater corridor trail and through Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge. It's nice to see the trees and the river, and wouldn't it be great if I see a Bigfoot as I am biking down the trail? 

Dinner is great, good company and food, and I don't have to do the cooking or cleaning - the perfect holiday meal!  (I did make a pumpkin pie this morning while carving the blocks.) After a few hours I am back on the trail, biking back quickly through the Refuge in the dark. It's peaceful and foggy, perfect. (Note to worriers - I weighed the safety factor of biking quickly through the woods to the bike path, versus trying to cross Powell Blvd at 17th. The woods feel  WAY safer.) 

I'm back at the IPRC at 6, and print the last block image in a half hour. Then the fun begins - I finish setting the type, which is harder because I change my mind about a few things I set the other day. Darn revisions! But it's better now. And I am still figuring out what I am actually trying to say. What does Bigfoot mean to us as a species? What do the stories about bigfoot tell us? I stop and do yoga, meditate, eat a piece of leftover pumpkin pie, and think about it. What is the highest possibility of Bigfoot? Then I know - to help us evolve as a species. 

The text is shorter than what I originally wrote (THANK GOD) and fits on one page. Fine with me. It's the most text I have printed at once and it takes a while to get it to print right - switching out letters that are damaged (hell type), and packing in spacing so it fits in the press without letters falling out. The actual printing is easy once everything is set up and ready to go. I print 110 of the text pages, whew! 

Around 10:30 I set the type for the last page - about the project, and the special thanks. Thank goodness it's a lot shorter, as I am getting tired and hopefully am not misspelling anyone's name. It sets up to print pretty easily, and I print them, finishing at 12:15 am. Woo Hooo!!!! I clean up and go home - biking in the quiet, misty night. It was a long day, but I'm SOOO glad it's printed!! I get home at 1:11 am. 

I am still not done yet - I have to let it dry, then fold, staple and trim it. But I'm close - and VERY grateful for that!! I will finish it up in a few days - believe it or not, this is actually not the only creative project I want to do this weekend! I have craft shows the next 2 weeks, so it's a little crazy... just like my Mom taught me! 

So Happy Thanksgiving! And thanks for your supportive comments and emails! It helped today knowing people were rooting for me!!  

WWBFD - Part 4: As of Now

November 19th - I go to the IPRC after work and print the title page. I already set some of the type for it, and set and add the dedication today. I print 110. The Title is 24 point sized Univers 65 typeface (I love it!), the dedication is Spartan Heavy 14 point, and the copyright text is 12 point Spartan Heavy Italic. 2.25 hours. 

November 21st - After the DIY Braintrust group (a creative group I facilitate once a month at the IPRC) I stay and write the text. I wrote down every idea I had last week, and now I hone it into more of what I actually want to say. It takes 2 hours, but I am very close. I know it will change when I start setting the type. It's about 150 words, and the most handset type I have ever set before at once is about 5 lines of copyright/info text on the back of my cards.  Hah! 

Seriously, I don't know how it will go - will I run out of type and have to print it in pieces? Will it be a total pain to print? (With these worn out old letters, they don't print evenly and you have to adjust it and it can be annoying and very time consuming.) Then when it's done I have to redistribute all of it back into the type drawer... What the hell - learning edge! 

November 23rd - I go at 2 pm to the IPRC, work my volunteer shift in the printroom from 5 - 8, and keep working until 9. I print the next 2 blocks - yahoo! They print well and it's much quicker to do more than one because the press is already set up. I like the designs pretty well. One is drawn from a picture of a farm in Tillamook, Oregon (sort of, I was looking at it for inspiration anyway). The other is from a photo of my neighbor picking blueberries. (I don't think I will tell her she was a model for Bigfoot!) 2 hours. 

I start setting the type, and get about halfway through. As I expected, I am cutting out a lot of unnecessary words and thoughts - it's a lot different picking out every single letter versus blathering on the computer. (Yeah, like now!) 1.5 hours. 

November 26th - After work I draw up the final 3 blocks, and am happy with the images - finally. One in particular I wasn't sure how it would work out. But you know what, drawing the blocks for the inside images hasn't felt so intimidating - maybe redrawing all of the sketches was good for me. (I don't want to EVER lose a sketchbook again though - that sucked.) 

One has Mount St. Helens in it, one has Mount Hood (and the first guy I dated after I got divorced who was a JERK! Oh well - it was the perfect image to use.) And one has my tent and "camp Bigfoot" Elizabeth and I stayed in this summer. I have tried to put the Sasquatches in a variety of landscapes, and I like that they are in all different settings, based on actual places in the Northwest. Tomorrow I carve and print, and finish setting the type, and start printing that. And oh yeah, somehow make a pie and go to Thanksgiving at Paula's. Right. 

WWBFD - Part 3: Now or Never

Holy cow, it's November already and I haven't done a damn thing more with the book. I really almost give up in late October, thinking this can't be done in time for holiday sales. But I know I will feel bad if I don't do it. 

I print 200 each of 2 Christmas card designs (the Bike Santas) and am still wavering on WWBFD. Then I get a package in the mail for "Ms. Bigfoot" from my friend and art hero Carye Bye who has been on a month-long trip to the South and Midwest. It has an article on Bigfoot sightings in Minnesota, and a postcard from the Spam Museum of Sasquatch carrying a package of spam. (It's photoshopped onto the Patterson image, but still, it's hilarious!) I am completely re-inspired and I know I really want to do this. 

(Um, for non-BF geeks, the Patterson video is famous footage taken in the 1960s of what appears to be a female sasquatch in Northern California. It's never been proven to be a fake, and who back then would have thought to put boobs on a gorilla suit?) 

 

Back to the planning - yep, still 6 blocks to print, and 4 pages of text. It's going to take at least 30 - 40 hours. Can I do it before December 1? I decide I will not do 100 in this run, which will help it go faster - 50 will be plenty for now, and I'll print 60 of each page as some will get messed up. I will print 100 of the text pages, as I only want to set the type once. We are crazy busy at work, so I don't take my regular days off - less time for art for a few weeks, unfortunately. 

My birthday, November 15th - I get up and work on it first thing. I realize I want to use the Patterson image for the first image page - Take a Walk. It's perfect and I love the idea. (Thank you again, Carye, as I draw from the postcard she sent.) 

November 16th - I print up 60 of them at the IPRC. I haven't ever used laid paper like this before, and it's much thinner than cardstock which is what I usually print on. I have no idea how it will do, but it's excellent, and dries quickly, unlike the cardstock. I am printing all in black so that at least is faster than mixing inks, and I can print 60 very quickly, once I get the block the way I want it. I did some funky background that was supposed to be brush but looks crazy. After I print a few, I realize it's not working (I usually have to fix something in the image after I see it printed.) I carve it out more and it gets worse, and I have messed up one of the hands in the process - crap! I give up and carve the background out so it's blank - it's not the exact Patterson photo hillside, but it looks much better. And I work with the messed up hand and it actually looks better. Ok, whew. Printing is such an imprecise art - that's part of what I love about it. I don't really know how it's all going to look before it's printed. It's a surprise! (When it works.) 

Another letterpress printer friend Shannon Buck shows me a trick - placing prints in magazines instead of phone books so they don't stick to the pages. I use the Best Friends animal sanctuary magazines I have around - it seems fitting for Bigfoot. I am so glad the first block is done! 1.5 hours - I am used to doing 100 - 200 prints at once, so 60 seems like nothing!

What Would Bigfoot Do? Part 2: Starting to Print

Mid-August - I know I have to start printing, even though I don't have all the sketches and ideas worked out. My creative process, especially on larger pieces, is to start with what I know, and trust that I will discover the next piece, without knowing the whole. It usually works. 

I do some basic project planning, which is a new thing for me. (Yes, I have learned something from working for engineers and planners all these years!) It helps a lot to know the scope of the project before I start, so I can estimate my time  and expenses and really decide if I want to commit to a project or not. (I already have a drawer of unfinished projects and don't want to add more great ideas I can't actually complete if I can help it!) 

So, 8 prints, plus 4 pages of text = how much time? I know it will be a lot, but I have months before Christmas, right? It's only August... 

I buy a 50-pack of French Paper's Construction line, Factory Green 100% recycled cover stock. And I totally score some really cool paper for the inside at SCRAP. It's old letterhead from a doctor's office from the 1960's with a cool laid finish (ridges). It's perfect for what I want and they happen to have 2 boxes of it the day I am there. (Thanks, Universe!) I also trust the process of finding materials like that - and this is excellent. Maybe I am supposed to do this project after all...

Because I'm still intimidated, I start with the back cover, working up my courage with a simple drawing - a footprint. I use my foot as the model, which is fun. It carves and prints easily and I do 100 one day in the IPRC. 

So before I go to Korea, I also design and carve the front cover, of Bigfoot in the forest, the book  title carved into a tree. He has sort of a monkey face. I draw better with a picture to go by and I look at pictures of apes for ideas. The printing goes pretty well, though some are not as dark as I'd like. Oh well. 

Then I go to Korea, intending to finish the sketching while I am there or maybe on the plane on the way or the way home... (Yeah, right!) 

What Would Bigfoot Do? Part 1: The Inspiration

I have been a believer in Sasquatch for a while, since first camping in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in July 2007.  There's so much forest there - anything could hide in there pretty easily. Then my friend Dan Miller gave me The Locals by Thom Powell last Christmas, which is all about investigations done of reported encounters with the Bigfeet as he calls them. It is fascinating and it gets me thinking... 

This past spring I get the idea to do a small book about Bigfoot. I play with the idea of doing a comic, and take a comics basics workshop at the IPRC with my friend Dylan Williams. Dylan encourages us to do our own thing in our own style, and I realize - drawing isn't really it for me, it's printing. But can I do a whole printed book? It seems daunting. 

My birth mother, Elizabeth, comes out to visit in July. We go camping near Mount St. Helens and have the good fortune to camp (for free) on the property of a cool kitchy gift shop near the mountain - there's a giant Bigfoot right by the shop. It is the best campground ever! We don't see any Sasquatches besides the statue, but have a great time anyway. I am inspired to really start the book. It is a larger letterpress project than I have ever done, but one of my intentions with my art is to stay on my learning edge, so I decide to go for it. 

I have done a few sketches in the months since the workshop, and I start sketching in earnest. It all goes fine until I lose my sketchbook. I don't know what happened. My parents come out to visit in early August, and we have a great time exploring Cannon Beach and Seaside. (They have never been out here before so are completely blown away. Now they finally understand why I live out here!) I last see my sketchbook in the hotel room in Seaside, but don't realize it was gone until over a week later. I turn the apartment upside down, call the hotel several times, but it has disappeared without a trace, just like Bigfoot himself.  

I am disheartened and unsure if I will be able to do the project or not now. Drawing is not my best skill, and the thought of starting it all over is a bummer. And I am really upset that I have been so unfocused on my art that my sketchbook is missing for a week and a half before I even realize it. I halfheartedly start redoing the sketches, which I don't completely remember since it has been a while since I first them. And I am still just working out the ideas anyway - what Would Bigfoot do?