Neither rain, nor sleet nor hail nor snow . . .

When I took my time yesterday morning making my way to MOMA to be there when the doors opened at 11 AM, I had no idea I was going to have to stand in a line that wrapped clear around the big city block and stand in the pouring rain.  But I did it.  And once I got inside and had my ticket and walked into the Picasso print exhibition it was the last thing on my mind despite the fact that my shoes squeaked and sloshed when I walked and I was frozen to the bone.   It was incredible and I spent so much time with my nose as close as it could get to the prints without breaking any museum protocol.

And then of course there were other galleries filled with  Rothkos and Rauschenbergs and Warhols and Motherwells and a good dose of all the art that was ever in any second survey class's section on 20th century art and the Gardner text right before my eyes -  not to mention the Wm. Kentridge exhibition and all of those prints.  Exhausted and overloaded I took a cab to the Neue Museum to see the Otto Dix exhibition including his entire Der Krieg series of prints which was devastatingly riveting!  A few Klimts and my favorite Egon Shiele brightened the sullen mood. Then a late, but delicious lunch in the  Neue's Viennese Cafe  and with an hour and a half to spare, I  dashed to the Guggenheim, braved another queue in the rain and squeaked into this modern ziggerat's exhibitions and then dragged my you know what and about 150 pounds of books to Grand Central to meet my niece.

So, I was wondering . . . do you think Picasso, Dix or Kentridge were ever in a print exchange?

No Room for Leftovers

I didn't have any more room or I would've inhaled the last one  like I did the first three.

See these lovely, luscious little caramels sitting on my laptop? Well, I should say caramel.  About 7 minutes ago there were four of them - 2 dark - 2 milk all for only $10.   But then you should've seen the bag they came in (maybe another post)  I have two hours to spare at O'Hare.  I'm on my way to NYC to see our mini-exhibition of Immigrant Shadows at Ellis Island and an exhibition at MAD entitled Slash: Paper Under the Knife along with as many museums and galleries I can pack in  to 60 some hours.   Gee, when you put it that way, I should probably finish the last one so I have the energy I'll need to hoof it through the city.   I'm staying with my niece, Kimberly, in the East Village.   It's been 10 years since I've been there - I can remember because my sister took me on a cruise for my fiftieth and a that was 10 years ago.

Yikes I'm old!

Here's the scoop

I am just so blown away by the quality of the prints that are landing in the leftover pile.  Yesterday I picked up two sets of prints from two Boise artists that would not call themselves printmakers.  Well, they ARE printmakers, according to the work that has just been added to the LEFTOVER collection, but if you asked them if they were printmakers, they might twist their face a bit . . . cock their head a little and then manage a slight nod.   But gosh and golly, jeepers creepers, holy moly when you see these entries your socks will be flying off, too.

So, when your LEFTOVERS arrive, hold on!

Knocked my socks off!

Here's the deal . . .

I wasn't really sure if this print exchange would take off.  I mean, I liked the idea and pushed it on a lot of people.  I mean I pushed it on a lot of people.  There are some really great artists in Boize'wah and I was assertive.  (Not my usual style, but I stepped up) And, boy oh boy, am I glad I did.

Interested?  I'll fill you in later - you see the hot tub is waiting and that's a whole nother story for a  whole nother day.

Trust me, okay????

(PS - is that a great photo or what?  This is what happens when you google image "knock your socks off")  Serious.  I'm not kidding . . .

Oh Lucy, I'm home!

This is the magnet that graces my refrigerator door!

And this is the leftover packaging that graces my studio floor!

All I can say is, we have the best looking leftovers around.  Still waiting for a few more, but boy oh boy, are they sumpin!

Rumors of a different kind of leftover exchange

I think I mentioned that Matt Bodett and I stopped by Crown Point Press yesterday, but what I forgot to mention was that we each picked up an original sketchbook/journal made out of Crown Point leftovers.  We witnessed one of the master printmakers printing an edition of a small plate on full sized sheets of paper. The print is eventually trimmed down - leaving several strips of blank leftovers.   And those leftovers?  Well, they eventually make their way into sketchbook/journals.   And the covers of the sketchbook/journals are actually rejected prints that get torn down, too.    As we both "oohed" and "aahed" and selected our favorite to purchase, Matt looked at me and said, " Amy, this would be a great exchange idea."   So, I'm just throwing this out there.  Let's just say participants agreed to create 4, maybe 5 small blank books with leftover prints as covers - along with a few signatures of blank paper and they in return would get back that same number of books.   Would anyone be interested?

This, I think,  is the very table that held the stack of sketchbooks! And here's  a crummy  cell phone photo of my book made with beautiful leftover printmaking papers.

It's about 7" square, cost me $20.00 and probably has 30 individual sheets of assorted papers in it.  If you know Matt Bodett, ask to see his.

Today's my last day in SF and I can't wait to get back to all your leftovers.

Taking Home Leftovers

It's true.  I will be taking Leftovers  home with me from San Francisco.  Three of our exchange participants live in the greater Bay Area and we met for dinner last night.  No, I'm not taking leftovers from our dinner back to Boiz-wah, I'm taking their Leftover prints back to Boiz-wah.  And here's a wonderful fact that most of you have probably realized already.
Some of our best friends in life will turn out to be printmakers!  How do I know this?  I know this from experience.  You see, my dinner companions last night all took the same printmaking workshop in Florence with me back in the summer of 2004.   The same workshop that made me decide to go back to school to study printmaking.  And we've all kept in touch.  Of course, the Bay Area gals get to run into each other a bit more often, but nevertheless we've all stayed in touch  because of that common connection.  Don't you just love it??

Now, I'm sorry to say I won't be able to personally pick up everybody's prints - and they are due today.   But, I won't be back in Boise until late tomorrow night, and if I don't have your prints yet, we will figure it all out.   Meanwhile, have a great day and bask in the strength of our wonderful connection to one another!

Leftover Granola

I must be outtamymind!  I'm staying at a hostel here in San Francisco with the BSU MFA and MA students and breakfast is included.   But I wasn't in the mood for a bagel or bread with peanut butter and/or jelly today, so decided to head out this morning for  a lovely little breakfast.   Fresh squeezed orange juice, hot tea served by a handsome waiter and I settled on the granola with banana slices.  

The reason I must be outtamymind is the bill came to $16.46 - for breakfast - and I had leftovers because I couldn't finish it all!   What was I thinking?  Guess tomorrow I'll settle for bagel with the peanut butter and/or jelly and wash my own dishes again.  

But the good news is it fortified me for our  BART trip to Oakland and short hike to Creative Growth - a visionary center for artists with disabilities.  So far, it's been my favorite part of the trip.  Check out their website at www.creativegrowth.org.  

Did I say that was my most favorite part of my trip so far?  Okay, it's tied with a personal tour of Crown Point Press  Matt Bodett and I had this afternoon.   Two more days in the city and I'll be back in Boiz-wah sorting leftovers.  I mean Leftovers!    YAY!

Leftover Peeps

Bought eight dozen peeps the other day.   Yes, I actually like peeps, love them, cruelly nuke them in the microwave to get them big and plump and gooey.   But the eight dozen peeps were not for me.  You see, I agreed to decorate a cowboy hat for the Boys and Girls Club of Ada County.  It's their annual Wild West fundraiser and Kelly Knopp sent out a call to artists to decorate a hat for their centerpieces.  So after wracking my brain for ideas, I settled on peeps.   The auction is the day before Easter, and, let's face it,  peeps have personality.   So I put little peepsize bandanas around all the girl chicks and peepsize black stetsons on all the boy chicks. And no, it's not a piece on the social constructs of gender, because I honestly didn't know if they were girl peeps or boy peeps.   You know, there are pink and blue  and lavender peeps, but I chose the traditional yellow, middle of the why-does-the-chicken-cross-the-road peeps.   A peep is a peep - and I randomly decorated 'em, okay?

Anyway, here's the hat sitting on top of my horse, er Honda.

You know, a peep doesn't weigh anything, barely a whisper.  But I gotta tell you, this is one HEAVY HAT!  And there's still about 30 peeps left  . . .  destined for the microwave . . . one at a time.    Mwahhhhhhhaaaaaaahahahaha!

Can't sleep

For the first time tonight I started to think about what 76 stacks of leftover prints are going to look like. Because, you see,  they are rolling on in to Wingtip!  Man, I'm sure glad I kept the size requirements down.  I mean,  can you even imagine 76 stacks of BIG prints?  Nope, neither can I.  Maybe next year I'll reduce the size down a notch and every year thereafter a little smaller and a little smaller till there are no leftovers at all.  Naw, I want this to go on forever.  A leftover legacy!

'Night, sweet dreams.

Leftover love notes

While goggling leftovers I ran across this little gem.   Now imagine opening your leftovers from the previous nite at your favorite bistro and finding this little gem of a note:

What a nice touch, huh?

7/76s

Yup, slowly but surely the leftovers are finding their way to Wingtip Press.  We are up to seven  sets of prints now and with only 11 days to go, I'm expecting a full on rush next week.
I can't begin to tell you you how fun this is going to be.  Thanks to all of you participants for contributing.   And thanks in advance to all of you printmakers who will get them in on time.

Yes, I altered this a little, but it was convenient!  And wouldn't it be nice if there was such a thing.  You know, a little corner store that we could dash in and dash out and pick up a quick can of ink, a bundle of newsprint and a roll of tarlatans.   Now, that's my kinda shopping!

5/76ths

I invited Charles Demuth's The Figure 5 in Gold to announce the receipt of the 5th set of Leftovers today.  Well, there are actually 6 sets of prints here at Wingtip.  You see my prints are here, but I'll be honest.  They are not completely finished.

Now remember folks, we do have an exhibition coming up in Salt Lake in April!   And I will  need to send off some images from the exchange to Saltgrass Printmakers in Salt Lake soon after the deadline for promotional purposes.  I hope you are all as excited as I am!

As we say at Wingtip:   "Think Ink, Prefer Paper, Love Life and Make Art All Day Long."

May all your prints dry flat!

Buy Wisely

Here's another leftover WWII poster.  I had to spend a few seconds figuring out what it was saying, but then I realized it was talking about airlifting food to war victims. Based on my limited research, it seems the only time it was ever fashionable to conserve in our recent history was during war time, which is pretty darn sad, isn't it?

So let's get behind that old campaign! And let's take it up a notch!

Buy Wisely - Cook  Carefully - Store Carefully - Use Leftovers

AND

Print Wisely - Print  Carefully - Store Carefully - Use Leftovers

One more time . . . 

Buy Wisely - Cook  Carefully - Store Carefully - Use Leftovers

AND

Print Wisely - Print  Carefully - Store Carefully - Use Leftovers

Back in the day

Remember when we were supposed to be terrified of the Russians!  I do.  Grew up wishing I had a bomb shelter like the people down the street.  Also grew up thinking that Russia suffered a never ending Boise-style weather related inversion.  Well, the pictures were all black and white then - so I just assumed the sun never shined.  I felt the same way about WWI and WWII.   It actually made me pretty sad to think that people in the rest of the world lived with such bleak weather and no sunshine.  So, when I ran across this poster for Russian conservation, particularly Russian conservation of leftover paper, I just had to chuckle.

Get a load of this!  Leftover Russian paper conservation in living color! And he doesn't look like a bad guy at all.  Who knew?

1 . . . . . 2 . . . . .3 . . . . .

The third Leftover print and its creator arrived on my doorstep this morning.  Yay! A gorgeous linocut by Lisa Flowers Ross.   And, did I mention the mezzotint, yes, you read it right mezzotint by Cassandra Schiffler that I received Monday night.  You're all gonna so wish you had made 77 prints instead of thirteen.  Oh, yes, that did say 77!   We had another request from a Leftover Lover to participate just yesterday and I couldn't (and wouldn't) turn it down.

I'm beginning to think I should start scanning the prints so I could post them on the blog.  But that would be a lotta lotta work, huh?   Plus that would be spilling the leftover beans, wouldn't it? Darn, what a predicament!  And speaking of predicaments, I google-imaged (is that really a verb, google-imaged?) the word predicament, and just look what I found!  I have a feeling there would be no leftovers here:

Now that, my friends, is a predicament! The image, by the way,  is from a t-shirt company called threadless.

I'm getting ready

Yup, I'm setting the table!

Thought I better check out the etiquette for proper table service.  You see, I'm expecting 75 courses of leftovers pretty soon.   Only 19 more days!  Can you believe it?

A La Soupee

Wingtip Press tries (tries is the operative word) to host a monthly Soup Supper for local printmakers and  last night we celebrated our Blue print exchange  created to acknowledge our favorite downtown art store, Boise Blue.   The idea for the soup suppers came from a play on words of the printmaking term "a la poupee."  So, I make the soup, guests bring a box of broth, a bag of pasta, a can of beans, etc for the next soupee and we slurp soup and talk about everything under the sun.  We did a good job on the soup and there are leftovers, but here's a shot of the leftover cookies.   They look better than leftover soup and of course they're blue, for Boise Blue!