Litho With My Bro

Robbie Cline is in Chicago for a week and I'm having a blast kicking it with him just like the old days in very new day surroundings.

Today I had a shitload of litho prints that needed to get done which meant, unfortunately, Robbie had to tag along with Steph and I as we panicked to get as much work done as humanly possible.

After a few hours, Robbie became a crucial element of the artistic process. He timed each print, forcing Steph and I to work like athletes during the most important game of our lives. Our record? Two minutes and 30 seconds. That's from plate treating to sitting the print down to dry. That's beautiful.

One thing that blew was that we didn't have an extra pair of gloves for my precious little hands. The professors insisted that we use gloves but I had no choice but to do this barehanded. What a mistake.

There is a stage in the process where you coat the plate with asphaltum liquid. This stuff looks like asphalt, smells like asphalt and feels like asphalt. Essentially, it's road in a bottle.

I found out the hard way that getting street all over your hands is nearly impossible to tolerate and even harder to clean off.

Still, six hours later the prints came out nicely.

My hands still smell like Delancey street on a hot day. Blech.