The spring 2009 continuing education season has begun & with it the silkscreen projects class I have been taking for several years now. I emptied my flat files earlier this week to sort through what gets worked on next. An art triage of sorts. There are 12 classes per semester and that means time is of the essence. I have cards, Mylar & plexi glass prints and goodness knows how many mono prints -all in various stages of completion . Imagine a horribly crowded airport runway with an endless line of planes awaiting take off. Only this is a truly endless pile of prints - waiting, waiting, waiting. Some are one of a kinds and others are in sets = small editions. I am limited by time, rack space at the print shop, my poor aching wrists and horribly cracked thumb pads and how much I can carry into and out of the city on each trip without damaging fragile paper and easily scratched plastic. I dream of a studio like Motherwell or Matisse -in the backyard, well stocked and limitless . Alas, that will never be. I also try and keep in mind the toll my art making has on the earth. The ink that gets washed down the sink, the proofing paper that is tossed, the chemicals used to photographically coat a silkscreen and then clean it. All of this and more go into the waste system and become...what? More than that-is my art worth the toll taken ? And, is my art of any real value-to anyone? As I get older, these are the things I ask myself. And these questions often lead me to posit that my days as a productive artist are slowly drawing to a close. Time to turn to more beneficial enterprises..................................
