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QUEST: 1,000 Woodcuts Update
January 2004 -  200+ completed
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I didn't want to make a big deal about reaching the 200 mark on my quest for 1,000 because big celebrations tend to make me complacent. In retrospect, I always liked best the teachers and professors I couldn't please no matter how well I did. I understand their lessons now a little better. And I did get a bit lazy after reaching the 200 mark, which has now left me with 6 carved blocks ready to print and a clean studio screaming to get dirty. I best get back to those ink cans...
But nevertheless, reaching 200 tells me that I can do at least that meany and more; and in knowing I can, I find the drive to finish. So I keep going.

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New Stuff:
Back to a couple of small engravings honoring the muses of the woodcut
(I made that up, there are NO muses of the woodcut) and a large woodcut honoring the world wide web:
Inspiration Imagination The Web!

To see the progression: http://www.1000woodcuts.com/1000woodcuts/1000.html

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Thoughts and ramblings:

During my latest travels I noticed that I see many sunrises and sunsets. I don't know their significance but sunrises and sunsets make me feel good for different reasons and most importantly, give me a sense of continuity. Seeing them also tells me that being an artist means working long days and sometimes long nights, but being of Spanish character, working is where I feel most "right" about myself.

But back to the sunrises and sunsets, they intrigued me because after three years I was really looking at them and wondering what it is about these two events that is so satisfying. Sunrises and their tingling soft colors, like the beginning of a new year, tell me about opportunity and wonder. They are a chance to start anew, to repair mistakes and refresh friendships and redefine goals and countless other beginnings. Sunrises give us a fresh new start...every single day.
Sunsets give us rest, marking the end of good and bad days alike, giving their own opportunity to stop and renew. At sunset and beyond we can wipe off the day's messes, rest weary bones, rethink our whole existence or just lay down and drift off to sleep knowing that we got through whatever the day brought and we deserve a quiet night.

But the most intriguing thing about sunrises and sunsets is that they continue to come and go, giving us opportunities and giving us rest, assuredly so, every day and every night. Matters not how good or how bad things have been or might be, there are new beginnings and new ends daily. And as much as I look forward to the peaceful sunset of a cold windy day, I also look for the moment, during a drive in the desert, when the new sun will just peek above the horizon in the tinted sky and give the land a bath of new warmth and new energy. I guess all this came about because the beginning of the year can be the ultimate sunrise, the ultimate opportunity. And while the continuity from year to year and day to day is most important, sunsets and sunrises also give us a moment in time, a still instant in which to pause and...then move along.

Well, again, I don't know exactly what all that means...only that there is a delicious secret to sunrises and sunsets and that I want to see many many more and keep rolling along.

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Speaking of early mornings, here is my schedule of exhibits for the Spring of 2004;
I might sneak in another Las Vegas exhibit here and there:

FEBRUARY
13, 14 & 15- ArtFEST of 5th Avenue- Downtown Scottsdale on 5th Avenue- Scottsdale ARIZONA
27, 28 & 29- Fountain Hills Great Fair Avenue of the Fountains- Fountain Hills ARIZONA

MARCH
12, 13 & 14- Scottsdale Arts Festival Scottsdale Center for the Arts Civic Center, -Old Scottsdale ARIZONA
18, 19, 20 & 21 -La Quinta Festival of the Arts La Quinta Arts Grounds- La Quinta CALIFORNIA
26, 27 & 28 -Mill Avenue Festival of the Arts Downtown Tempe along Mill Avenue- Tempe ARIZONA

APRIL
17 & 18- Montelago Art Festival Montelago Village -Lake Las Vegas Henderson NEVADA
24 & 25- Boulder City Fine Arts Festival Centennial Park- Boulder City NEVADA

MAY
8 & 9- ArtFEST of Henderson! Downtown Henderson on Water Street -Henderson NEVADA

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Quote(s) of the Day

"For some must watch, while some must sleep;
thus runs the world away"--William Shakespeare

"Still round the corner there may wait,
A new road, or a secret gate" --J.R.R. Tolkien

Thanks for listening,
Maria

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Maria Arango, Printmaker
Las Vegas  Nevada  USA
http://www.1000woodcuts.com
Follow along!
maria(AT)mariarango.com
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