Pun Cones

My 'annual' resolution has been, for some years, to cull out old, stored artwork, separate the wheat from the chaff... you know the drill. Man, I saved EVERYTHING! So for the past few days I've been working in that direction. Naturally, I'm finding long forgotten stuff including a couple of sets of color separations from back in the late 70's. I guess I was nearing 40 when this photo was taken for a newspaper interview, probably in conjunction with an upcoming show. I couldn't imagine why he was posing me this way but it turned out well... it's one of my favorite shots but until scanners, I didn't know what to do with the separations.

Serigraphy was nearly unknown in Montgomery, AL when we arrived in 1976. I'd had some good instruction at our last assignment in DC and I had the field to myself at art festivals in the area. I enjoyed talking about the process, showing a small screen and explaining how it worked. The fact that they were considered multiple originals confused most (one man insisted on purchasing the original... I should have run home and created one for him!) But the public appreciated the lower selling price compared to my watercolors and seemed to like them. I had a good run with this medium.

Although the brick walls look 'loft-like' it was actually our sunporch... the first studio that didn't involve a kitchen sink. I strung wire and clothespins across one corner for hanging prints to dry, it was a very rudimentary arrangement but it worked.

The print I'm posed with here was part of a series I dubbed "Pun Cones." It involved one cut stencil of a pine cone which I used in multiple formats and gave pun-ish titles hoping to invoke cleverness. This one was called "NonConeFormist" because the lower right square is tipping away from the group of four. When it was shown in a group show, another artist called me, all worried that part of my entry was falling out of the mat. I'll highlight others in this series as they are uncovered/rediscovered... could be worth a chuckle.