aqua fortis

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Post Exertion Exhaustion Disorder

Hee hee. That has a funny acronym. I have a little writing-related news to report, but other than that, I've just been really busy and feeling exhausted and overwhelmed by the amount of work I've failed to say no to (same old story...). Even sleep is apparently not safe--the other night I dreamed I was graining a lithography stone with a levigator (not as big a stone as in the picture, thank god), which I haven't done since taking a litho class at the Art Institute from a horrid old geezer who is finally listed as emeritus faculty. He has the dubious honor of being the only professor from whom I have actually un-learned information. Seriously.

Anyway, dreaming about graining a stone is not a lot of fun. In the dream I was working as a sort of apprentice or student to an Asian man who was the master printer and didn't speak any English. In real life, graining a stone takes a couple of hours at least, and that part of the dream lasted a little while. Then I had shoulder and neck aches the next day, which is unsurprising, I guess.

Don't get me wrong, I really like the look of stone lithography. You can get beautiful pencil-like or wash-like effects. But I'll take etching any day. A copper plate weighs WAY less, requires a lot less polishing, and does not involve finicky chemical processes about which irrational, semi-proven superstitions abound.

4 comments:

David T. Macknet said...

You know, someday you're going to have a studio fully equipped in your own house ... and nobody will see you ever again. And you'll quit saying "yes" to things, because you'll want studio time. People will have to force you to take vacations, and even then your fingers will be stained with chemicals used in your studio, and you will not converse much, but will sit, with an odd, haunted look on your face, thinking of the next copper plate....

Sarah Stevenson said...

The scary thing about that is, we may ultimately have lithography equipment in there too, one day. There's a completely unused litho press in one of the art rooms at MJC, and several limestones in good condition...if I could possibly purge myself of bad past experiences, I might learn to enjoy it!

David T. Macknet said...

Looking at the process, I'd think it'd be quite muscle-building, semi-therapeutic / hypnotic / meditative ... but it'd also cause me to want to say, "Wax On! Wax Off! Wax On! Wax Off! ..."

Sarah Stevenson said...

You get less of the "wax on, wax off" feeling if you grain your stone with another stone...which is more efficient, anyway, since you get two stones ready in the process. Not always possible, though, when you're in a classroom situation and all the stones are in use...