Collaboration Station

Black Eye Update: 5:54PM Tuesday

Today started out like any other day at Tamarind. We all met up around 9am in the studio and talked with Rodney for an hour or so about the upcoming semester. Or more accurately, Rodney talked to us about the upcoming semester.

We had our Art History Class (History of Printmaking II) at 11am, so Rodney walked us over to our building. (Once outside Tamarind, we have no idea where we are.) The AH class was okay. Mostly just introductions. I've had a similar class before, so I'm hoping it won't be too taxing. It helps that the instructor is a former Master Printer. So at least she knows what's going on.

We had lunch together as a group and then Patrick accompanied me to the Financial Aid office to take care of my business. I swear, I don't know how many of you read my early early post about my Financial Aid Fiasco, but this semester has almost been worse. We had to wait a while, but somehow managed to get in and see the FinAid officer and run back to Tamarind before our 1:30 meeting with our Collaborative Class. I'm not used to running, much less running in high altitudes... so I was a black-eyed incredibly winded wreck when I arrived back at Tamarind.

It was exciting to finally meet with our collaborators for the semester. All of the collaborative students are in the graduate program at UNM. Some of them are printmakers, but it seemed like most were painters and drawers. There may have been a couple sculptors thrown in.

Rodney handed out a collaboration schedule. It appears that the semester is broken into four 3-4 week periods. During each period, we are assigned to work with one (or sometimes two) of the artists on an edition of prints. In the end, it looks like each printer will have to do six total editions, four of which will be 3-4 color runs and two of which will be 1-2 runs. 

So for the first collaboration, I am working with Nicole on a 3-4 run print (with 3 trial proofs) and I'm simultaneously working with Jenna on a 1-2 run print (with 2 trial proofs). Besides our Art History class, this is the only thing we have to do... so I'm hoping it won't be too hard to get in two projects at once. I mean, last semester we were cranking out more than an edition a week, so this should be manageable.

The hard part is having to coordinate schedules and meetings with your artist(s). From what I understand, there is the potential for a lot of down time. If you get a proof done and are waiting for them to come in and approve it, for example. Also, it's going to take a bit for them to get their ideas together. Some of them know what they want to do. Others are completely clueless. We're supposed to arrange meetings in their studios to discuss their work and get ideas on how to translate that into a print. 

Nicole and I pinned down a time to meet on Thursday morning. I'm still waiting to hear from Jenna. I think she's a little more wary of this whole process. Or maybe she's just wary of my black eye. Who knows. 

Either way, I'm excited to be back and working on things. I have nothing to do tonight except mourn the loss of Heath Ledger, so I might go grain a stone after dinner (before all of this enthusiasm wears off).