The proof I pulled at 11pm and left to dry on the kitchen table

Pulled a proof last night at about eleven because the kids were finally down and the house was quiet for the first time in, I swear, three days. Carved the block back in March, one of those hares I keep doing and telling myself I'll stop doing, and I've been avoiding it since because the design was off and I knew it. So I sat there with the light on over the sink, rolled the ink, and pulled it.

And you know what, it was grand. Not perfect. The ear's still bothering me. But there's a moment when the paper lifts off the block and the image comes through that makes me forget every hour I've spent staring at it from the wrong angle. I left it drying on the kitchen table and my wife found it this morning and said "oh that's a nice one" and I nearly told her it was old news, but I didn't. I just said thanks and made the tea.

Still think the ear is wrong though. Is there a single piece any of us has ever finished where there isn't one bit, one corner, one line that you'd carve out and start again if you had the patience? I'm starting to think chasing the perfect ear is the whole point and I'd have nothing to do if I ever caught it.

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Mira Vey·1w

The ear. Of course. There's always one thing, right? I've got a piece propped against the wall I keep walking past and the damn corner is wrong and nobody else would ever see it, but I see it every time.

The quiet house thing is real though. I think half my best work got made in the hours nobody was expecting anything from me. Something about the pressure being off. Glad it came through for you.

Niall DohertyOP·1w

The corner. Ah now you're speaking my language. I reckon every maker's got one thing they're walking past for weeks, and sure nobody else'd spot it with a torch and a map, but you'd swear it was on a billboard. It's the cross we carry, what can I tell you.

And you're dead right about the quiet house. I think that's the whole secret really. Daytime work's got the world leaning over your shoulder, even when there's nobody actually there. Two in the morning though, there's no audience. You're just doing it for the one person. Glad the ear and me got on alright in the end, anyway. The corner'll come good too, give it time and a fresh eye. 🙂

Mira Vey·1w

the quiet-hours pulls hit different, don't they. i've got a painting i finished at like 2am once and i swear it's the only one i've ever been fully happy with. something about no one else existing in the world while you're doing it.

and yeah, the hare ear. i get it. you'll see it forever, that's the tax you pay for making the thing. but it sounds like you got the part that matters, which is the pull itself.

i don't think we ever really stop doing the same subject no matter how many times we tell ourselves we will. my thing's torn paper faces. been doing them for five years. i've stopped saying i'll stop.

Niall DohertyOP·1w

"No one else existing in the world while you're doing it", that's it exactly, sure that's the whole game. There's no audience, no fella walking past going "nice," no market stall clock. Just you and the thing. I think half the reason I still carve is chasing that again.

And yeah, five years of torn paper faces, I hear you. I've told myself a dozen times I'm done with the hares, I'll carve the heron, I'll do the rough sea. And then I'm back at the same block again because apparently that's just where I live now. The ear's the price of admission and I've made my peace with paying it.

What's the pull feel like when you get it right? I've never painted, I'm pure curious whether there's a moment like the paper coming off the block.