I got the shirts made. I had some dyed shirts that I wanted to use up, the purple ones, and I thought I ordered grey to fill in the straight-cut ones, but it is this weird brownish shade, which we are stuck with. Whatever. I had a two-color design in mind, with the split screen of green and pink, but it didn't have enough pizazz so I hand-colored the silver on there. It's OK. I'm almost always less than thrilled with my final products and a lot of these are kind of substandard in print quality too, but again, WHATEVER!
I'm just happy to have them finished. The show is next weekend and I'm officially pretty anxious, which is normal for me. The key of course is a lot of repetitive practice so that's my plan for the next 10 days. That would be fine if that is all I had to do, but of course there is a lot more.
I have an interview with Emerson Brady of The Weekly tomorrow for which I will attempt to clean my house enough to fit in four people at once, which is only doable if no one wants to sit down. It won't be as extensive as what I had to do last year for the Oregonian...just photos, no video, I think. Guess we'll see.
My problem with everything is that I can't seem to limit myself to any type of minimalism, in anything. I want to bring in all of the history, the science, the culture...I'm more of an encyclopedia than a dictionary. A novel rather than a short story. A feature film. I have to admit I am a Jell-O Art legend...only laughable if you are not one and can't relate to the importance of the role.
But it is so fortunate that the layer of silliness is on top, in all of it's silver glitter. You just can't take it all so seriously that you lose perspective. In two weeks it will all be a memory. And, hopefully, some archival materials.
The t-shirt process did strike me as kind of minimalist, though. I am old school in my techniques, so here is all of the art I had to make. Add squeegees and ink, and it's simple.
I haven't been printing all winter but I managed. I found the rubylith I had stashed for just this occasion and controlled myself on the art...didn't lay on any patterns for more dimension and didn't get too perfectionistic about it. I picked last Friday afternoon which was sunny and warm so I could put the shirts outside to dry and it all went well enough. I hope they sell.
I often add hand-coloring to my work when it is a special edition like this...it takes time but adds a lot. Jell-O Art Show t-shirts are a fun project every year because I get to do whatever I want and they are part of a collection that goes back a couple of decades. They don't really relate to the theme, most times, or the performance or whatever sculpture I am making. Weird Barbie seemed like the obvious choice. Originally I had planned to feature Ruth Bader Ginsberg...she would be a fun subject, in a way. Anyway, they're history now!
So back to set-making, practicing songs and lines, and trying to make a Jell-O piece. All of it is in progress and looking like it will be finished on time. Now if I didn't have to clean up so much to avoid being humiliated by the interview tomorrow...everything is just a mess. Chaos is my style, apparently, although underneath it is all very well organized.
There's always room...etc.
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