WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?

Wow! It's been over a month, and I've managed to keep my mouth closed, well closed as far as the blog goes. The past six or seven weeks has involved a lot of travel, and a number of cultural experiences that were unique. In December, I attended my first meeting as a member of the Board of Directors for the Museum of Printing History in Houston, TX. This is a wonderful, small museum nestled in a somewhat residential neighborhood on the west side of Houston. They have a great staff, including hand lithographer Charles Criner, and an extensive collection of printing equipment, prints and memorabilia. Also in December, I had the opportunity to attend an all day meeting in the Pilsen neighborhood in Chicago. For those of you not familiar with Chicago, Pilsen is not a European enclave, but rather a remarkably vibrant Hispanic area. In addition to travelling to several area schools, we spend the majority of the day at the Mexican Fine Arts Museum. What an amazing place! The artwork is spectacular, and the facility is nothing short of incredible. If you are in the area, it's a must-see museum.

I managed to get into a spat with the Governor here in Illinois (note: He couldn't pick me out of a lineup if he had to, but I still fight with his staff on a regular basis) about the need to ban Junk Food in our public schools. For the record, I was technically pro-junk food. Technically, only because I don't believe that it's within the scope of the Governor's duties to dictate to schools with locally elected boards of education. Junk Food, it seems, is a difficult to define term. Whole milk is junk food, but Cheetos Lite is not! By the way, I lost the first round of the battle (by a 6-2 vote).

Printmaking! I do still find some time to work in my chosen field, too. We are currently preparing for the Southern Graphics Conference in Madison, WI April 5-8th. This is one of the biggest printmaking shows anywhere. The print exchange is beyond impressive, the product fair (my personal favorite) is remarkable, and the seminars/demonstrations are great. Oh yeah, there's a number of social activities as well. If you can leave this conference without being refreshed and renewed, you haven't tried too hard. You can check out the progress of the SGC show by going to their website at: http://www.art.wisc.edu/sgc2006/index.html. There is, sadly, very little about the product fair, but I trust that they will update that portion eventually. In the meantime, we'll be there, I believe, on Friday and Saturday, April 8-9th. Don't miss this opportunity!