Taking Flight

Or Building An Airplane While Flying It

Taking Flight I love the metaphor of building an airplane while simultaneously flying it. I know, It’s a bit overused, but what can I say, sometimes I connect with cliches. Like Vampire movies where you root for the Vampire, which at this point, let’s face it, is pretty much all Vampire movies.

This past month I thought of that image, building an airplane while in flight, because that’s what it has felt like to take on this endeavor of becoming a full time artist. At the heart of this metaphor is the notion of carrying on through a challenge. I’m figuring this out as I go with no clear idea about where the next landing strip is or how much fuel I’ve got. Hopefully I’ll catch some updrafts, hopefully nothing significant breaks, If something does break I can fix it or improvise, and if I need to land, I’ll find a good spot before I take flight again.

All analogies aside, I don’t have control over a lot of the variables in being a working artist, but I do have control over one thing: making the art. That I can do every day and that is what I love and ultimately, that’s what this newsletter is all about.

In The Studio The highlight of art making this past month was definitely getting over to Mayday Studio to work with expert printmaker Kelly McMahon. She fired up her Vandercook SP15 and showed me the ropes as I pulled off my first official linocut. It was so much fun!

The Vandercook SP15: A printing press older than me, made in 1968. Kelly tells me this was an affordable model at the time designed for printing newspaper and book pages. She refers to it as the Ford Escort of the printing press world. This is one of two Vandercook machines at Mayday studios and they are SUPER fun to work with.

I began by coming up with the concept of this print by making a small painting. I did that last summer and at the time I didn’t necessarily think I would be making a print. It’s based on a view I saw one night of the stars on Squam Lake.

As the possibility of a linocut print arose, I went back through my summer paintings to see what work would translate. Next I drew the tree images onto paper at a larger scale to see how it looked.

Next, with a pencil, I drew onto the linoleum, then used my Pentel brush pen to ink it onto the linoleum. Then I carved into the linoleum using carving tools. The trick is to carve AROUND the black lines, leaving the ink lines, because they will be raised and collect the ink which gets printed onto the paper. Here it is, partially carved with the painting “sketch” next to it for reference.

Then I carved the stars into another plate, which would become the background. Each star is a pin prick into the linoleum. By the way, any mistake you make with carving can’t be undone, so you just have to incorporate it or start over. Starting over would be expensive and time consuming. There are repair methods out there, but they are tricky and don’t always guarantee success. Did I make mistakes? Absolutely. But each time I had to engage that mistake and turn it into something else or just be OK with it. Yup, there is a life lesson there. Turn and talk with someone next to you about what this means. Sorry. 25 years of being a teacher leaves some residual behaviors. Anyhow, my background plate:

Then it was off to Mayday Studio where Kelly was waiting and ready. It took three visits: The proof, the background, and finally the foreground. The graded wash came out wonderfully and the trees have an iridescent quality I wasn’t expecting in the topmost region of the print.

It turned out that Kelly and I lived in San Francisco at the same time, unbeknownst to each other, so we had a great time talking about the early 2000s in SF, local haunts, pumpkin curry on Valencia and of course Kelly put on some Indie Rock from the time period. Thanks, Kelly!

This is a limited edition run of 30 prints which are available on my web shop. Get one while supplies last. Keep reading for the webshop link and discount code!

Oh I made a little video about the process as well:

Here We Go More flight analogies to follow. When the Wright Brothers took that first, brief flight I’m sure their hearts were pumping. Sure it only lasted 12 seconds, but when they landed I can guess there were some serious high fives happening. (When did people start high fiving?) Well, this past month I sold my first set of prints and my first two original paintings after making the decision to go full time with art and my heart was pumping. Woohoo!

Leah and Nathanial Shoaff had a big wall they wanted art on and reached out to get some prints. My old pal Ryan McGhan saw what I was up to and asked for an original waterscape. Emmy Anderson DMd me on Instagram and asked if one of my recent paintings I posted about was for sale. She DMd me just yesterday that the painting showed up and was better in person than on the screen. I can’t tell you how good it feels to feel that support.

The way Nathanial and Leah figured out how to place my prints on their wall taught me an excellent lesson and I thought I would share it with you if you if you are thinking about getting new art for your walls. They pulled a genius maneuver to figure out how to make these prints work. It’s a simple idea. They knew they wanted to fill the wall to balance out the huge Jasper Johns print hanging on the adjacent wall, and one wasn’t enough. So Nathanial cut out pieces of brown butcher paper roughly the size of the prints (I think they are in fact paper bags cut apart) and taped them to the wall, just to check out the spacing.

I was at their house for a barbecue when the paper was still up, and someone asked Nathanial if he had become a minimal conceptual artist. I think the answer is that he was always a minimal conceptual artist, this was just his first public exhibition onto the scene. Nathanial, I look forward to your paper bag exhibition. I will handle marketing.

Nathanial’s paper bag prototype

The next step was a studio visit where they picked out the paintings. I sent them off to the printer and Voila! They arrived in the mail a week later.

I was getting text updates from them throughout the hanging process and laughed out loud when Leah sent me the following photograph with the quote: “Just got myself into trouble.” Never fear, Jasper survived.

Jasper takes a dive

Here’s the finished result. Thank you, Nathanial and Leah!

Web Shop OPEN! This was a doozy and talk about a learning curve. I knew that when I set out to be an artist the business aspect would not be entirely intuitive for me and to quote Leonard “Bones” McCoy from one of my favorite TV shows Star Trek: “Dammit Jim, I’m an artist, not a business operator!” OK he never said that, but you get the idea. The truth is, as it turns out: I CAN DO THIS. Sure, it was a little messy and I’m doing it slowly and I’m making mistakes, but I’m doing it. My goal was to offer prints and originals at different price points so my artwork is accessible. If you go the shop and see an original that is not listed as a print, email me and I will be able to accommodate you!

Thank you for subscribing to my newsletter! I’m offering subscribers 10% off on all purchases. Use the code: WINTER at checkout. The code is good until December 11, which is the last day for me to ship things on time before the holiday rush. I’ll close shop on the 12th and reopen sometime in the New Year, most likely with new products.

The Web Shop is here! Mountaintides.bigcartel.com

Take a Listen I made a new playlist for you. Some old classics with a bit of new energy thrown in.

Thanks so much everyone for signing up for this newsletter. I honestly cannot convey enough how grateful I am for your support. Keep me in the loop. Let me know what you like about the newsletter. Have a question? I’m here. Next newsletter is a holiday buying guide of creative folks I know and admire whose work you will love. See you then.

Thanks, friends! Over and out!

-Brian “This Is Your Captain Speaking” Herrick.

Exit music while credits roll: