Experimenting

 

I've been playing around with larger-format printing for a couple of projects I have in the works - and this kind of printing has been so challenging for me. I've had printing problems I'd never seen before. It can be frustrating (okay, really frustrating) at times. I'd gotten to the point where I felt I'd almost mastered small-format printing; scaling up has meant errors and problems have increased exponentially.

Perhaps the most frustrating thing is that I have such clear ideas of what the end product will look like but my current skills won't get me to this point. It reminds me of this Ira Glass video where he discusses accepting being crappy at something for a while as a normal part of the creative process. Oh, but I hate being crappy at things!

So I'm back to being a newbie, (begrudgingly) allowing myself to make mistakes, and trying to enjoy the discovery process. Of course, I look at these photos and think that my print work isn't half bad. It's just not great. Not yet. And so I go back into my little studio, cut some more muslin, lay down more newsprint, and try to have fun. Or, at least, not throw my squeegee against the wall in frustration.