I have been printing the same zinc plate since February. Seven states now, and the last three are differences only I can see. I keep telling myself it's about the plate wearing down, the line getting softer each time because the acid has eaten the burr, and that the softness is the point. That is maybe 40% true.

The other 60% is that I am avoiding making the edition. An edition is a promise that the image is finished, and once it's numbered and signed and in a solander box, I have to move to the next question. The plate is safe. The plate is the part where I still don't know.

I've been thinking about how much of printmaking is actually this. The medium is supposed to be about the multiple, about reproducing the thing faithfully, and yet the whole studio life is a long slow refusal to arrive at the multiple. All process, no edition. I have a drawer of unresolved proofs that is basically a diary I can't read anymore.

Anyway, I'm going to commit to the edition run next week. Or at least I'm going to say that here so I have to.