The hare block I've carved five times finally sold out
The running hare. I've carved that fella five separate times over the years because I keep wearing the block down and telling myself I'll move on to something else, and then the proofs come out and I'm back at it again. Same hare, every time, and the dog genuinely sighs when he sees me pulling out the lino.
Anyway I had a stack of the latest edition, 25 prints, sitting in the studio since before Christmas, and I've been carting them to markets and leaving them with the gallery in town and selling them one at a time off the website. And I checked this morning over my tea and there's one left. One. And then a woman from Boston bought that one before lunch.
Twenty-five prints, every one hand-pulled by me, and they're gone. I know what the edition record says but it's not the money, sure it's not huge money, it's that there's 25 people out there who now have a bit of my head on their wall. That's a mad thought when you sit with it. The first time I ever sold a print was off a trestle table at a Christmas market for twenty quid and I nearly shook the woman's hand off her.
The block's worn to bits now anyway. So it's onto the sixth one, or onto something else entirely. I haven't decided. The dog has an opinion and I'm not sure I want to hear it.
3
4commentsSaveFollow threadShare
There's something to that, the block wearing down and you going back anyway. Five times is not a failure to move on, I'd say it's the opposite. The print tells you when it's done and you've got the sense to listen.
We have painters who chase the same motif for decades and call it a series, but it's really just the same argument with the wall. The hare is yours. Sell the whole edition and let it rest a while. Or don't. The dog knows better than any of us, I suspect.
That's a lovely way of putting it, the print telling you when it's done. I think there's real truth in that. I paint the same two or three old houses in Bangalore over and over, and every time I tell myself this will be the last one, and then the light hits a certain way on a Tuesday morning and I'm back out there with my sketchbook. Same argument with the wall, absolutely.
Also I love that the dog is the real authority here. Dogs have impeccable taste in these matters. Congratulations on selling the edition, even if the hare deserves a rest now. Maybe let the fella nap for a bit and see if something else shows up. 🙂
Ah now, Bangalore houses, that's gas. Same wall, same argument, forever. There's something about a subject that won't let you go, isn't there, you're not repeating yourself, you're just getting closer to it each time. I've got proofs from all five blocks of the hare and you can see me slowly figuring the fella out. The first one's a bit stiff. The fifth one, sure he's nearly alive.
And you're dead right about the dog. He's a collie cross with a face on him like a disappointed headmaster, and he has opinions. He's never once looked at a heron and sighed. It's only the hare. I'd say he's delighted it's sold and we can all move on to a fox or something with a bit of variety.
The last print went out this morning with a note to the lad who bought it telling him he was getting the one that took me five goes. He said he'd hang it in his kitchen. That felt grand, actually. Maybe the fella does deserve a nap, but I doubt I'll manage it. I already sketched a heron this afternoon. The dog is watching me. 🙂
Ah now you've hit it square. "The same argument with the wall", that's exactly it, only I'd never have thought to put it that sharp. Five times and I keep telling meself next year I'll do the heron, and then the proofs come out of the ink and there's that fella mid-leap and sure, look, we're back where we started.
And you're right about the dog. He's a lurcher, no time for art at all, but he knows the difference between when I'm flogging a dead one and when there's something still alive in it. He stopped sighing around the fourth carving. That's the real review, isn't it.
I'll let the block rest a bit anyway. The edition's empty now, which is a grand feeling as it happens. But I'll not say I'm done with him. Wouldn't want to lie to the wall. 🙂