Jes Lee

Re-newing studio days

Often my weekly schedule changes based on photo jobs, art work projects, and where I spend my studio days when I have them. This spring has been no different in that way. My long studio days re-new me. The days when I can focus on making, creating, and put most of the maintenance work of being a working artist aside for a bit. In many ways I live for the days were I can just create. Today is one of those days for me.

What I’m working on:

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The first task today is to finish printing pages for the new book I’m working on. This is the ink jet printing run for this book, and I’m starting out with three copies. The final edition will be somewhere around 40 copies of this little book, but I am starting with only three to work out the glitches with. There are 28 pages to print 3 times over….each page has to be hand loaded in my printer….you can imagine that this task takes up a lot of time!

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Of course there are two bunnies at my house that are very willing to help with any paper that just happens to fall where they can reach…

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After the ink jet printing is done, each page will have various layers that will get letterpress printed on it. I’m hoping to get to some of that today. This is the linoleum block I carved to give some of the paper for this book a water texture. The letterpress step will involve many test runs, and a lot of press set-up time.

journal square

My last task for today is getting materials measured and cut for making more journals. This is one I made recently for myself. I enjoy blogging and posting online, but I find I need to write by hand somewhere as well. I know I’m not the only one out there that keeps a journal or a sketchbook. I plan to get a few more made similar to this one that I can offer for sale at some of the upcoming festivals. Maybe I will meet a fellow journaler that way!

I have also been working hard on keeping up with my Etsy shops!

Newly listed today:

‘Spring’ print in my photography Etsy shop and a blue colander bowl in the pottery Etsy shop I work on with my dad.

Wherever you are, and whatever you are working on today, I hope you have a lovely and creative one.

~Peace~

New adventures

Tuesday I started a new adventure. The day after a long, holiday weekend, I woke up early to head out to day one of an internship. I will spend the next four months working in the preservation department at the library. The work isn’t easy, but it is a wonderful challenge. I can finally see myself putting to use the skills I have learned in my classes at Minnesota Center for Book Arts. The books I get to work with, to look at, to touch, and protect are amazing. I am there twice a week, and each time brings so many new tasks and treasures. I’m so very lucky to have this experience! Even better, my supervisor loves chatting about photography, and doesn’t mind at all when I photograph what I’m working on!

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My morning walk across the river to get to the library is pretty spectacular as well!

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This Sunday I will have a booth at Art at Rice Creek – the annual art festival held at Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts! The event runs from 10am-4pm and includes live music, activities, and many artist vendors! I will be selling pottery and photos as usual. This time I will also have copies of the broadside I made in collaboration with Kathryn Kysar for sale as well!

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I hope to see you there!