Typical Printmaking Success

Printmaking is such a challenge for me! I have never hated a class like I hate this one. I dread going every single day and I honestly considered dropping the class for the first month of school. I would still like to drop it, but this is where my stubbornness is actually useful.

When it comes to printmaking, I feel so incredibly stupid and handicapped on so many levels that I would rather just figure it out on my own. This translates into me not getting very much done during class time and spending extra time outside of class to finish my clumsy assignments. So, last night was one of those nights that I went to finish making prints. Because our prints were due the next day, I was not the only one who had this idea, and I was happy to have company. They, however, were probably not that thrilled about having my challenged self there.

I decided to start by making an aquatint (just pretend like you understand and go with me on this, cause in all honesty you probably understand just about as much as I do). In the process of making this you blow a lot of rosin dust stuff around and then that dust gets sucked into a fan in the ceiling. Well, because I am me, I forgot to turn the fan on. What happens when you don't turn the fan on? The fire alarm thinks the dust is smoke and it goes off! really loud! And when the fire alarm goes off, the police come.

Oh yeah, and you're also supposed to evacuate the building.

Printmaking is one of those things that, once you start, you can't really stop. There is a lot of waiting for the perfect time stuff. So there was no way that everyone who was up making their prints was going to evacuate the building in the middle of this time-sensitive process. We knew there was no fire. The noise was inconvenient, but we could still work.

The first policeman came in to find a room full of students going on with their work as though nothing out of the ordinary was going on at all. We explained that there was no fire and it was just poor ventilation. He accepted this logic, but said that in the future we really should evacuate.

The second policeman was not so forgiving. He asked, "Does the fact that the fire alarm is going off mean anything to you?" We all just stared at him. I could hear our all of our thoughts asking back, "Obviously the word 'printmaking' means nothing to you." The policeman finally concluded our silence to mean that we didn't care and we weren't leaving. He said, "I think there is a bigger problem than the fire alarm here."

Once he left, I went back to continue making my aquatint. When I came back out there was a third policeman and he was not as forgiving as the first two. I, apparently, had missed something because he had somehow convinced everyone to finally evacuate. By this time I think the alarm had actually stopped, but he was proving a point. He even went as far as telling us to leave and not to come back. This guy was not happy. So I left the building for 15 minutes, talked to Katelyn, then went back in and finished my prints.

Just a typical example of how my printmaking "success" usually goes.

FYI: The print I made that night ended up being the WORST in the class. And I'm not even just saying that. I got a C! (I think the second worst grade in the class was a B+ or maybe a B if I'm lucky) I have never done this poorly in any class before, ever! Anyway, have I mentioned that I hate this class?  :)

Also, the fan was actually broken, so my aquatint is the last to be made for a while. It better work out!