The quote from John Lennon seems most appropriate. Pictured are 200 stretched 8"x8" canvases for an upcoming exhibition (with Mark Cameron Boyd) at the Athenaeum in mid August. I stretched 1/4 of them this evening.
I know! There are machines that can do that. Like Vader, am I more machine now, than man? Maybe. But, there is aback story to this that has stretched my patience (as well as caused me to stretch a bunch of canvas). Initially I ordered approximately 300 pre-stretched canvases from Art Supply Warehouse in mid April. When they had not arrived by late May I gave them a call.
It seems my canvases were on backorder and would not reach the warehouse until mid July.
"Where are they on backorder from? China?" I said, incredulously.
"Yes sir," the operator replied. "It takes a while for the barge to cross the Pacific."
I ordered pre-stretched canvases because I calculated (rather liberally by some estimates) that it would take 24 hours to assemble 1200 stretcher bars, cut 300 canvas squares and stretch 300 canvases. This does not also account for placing 600 D-rings on the backs. So, I guess by virtue of the associative property, I'm more Chinese now, than man - or, something like that - because my studio definitely felt like a sweat shop this evening a I stretched 50 canvases in two hours (to the tunes of ( ) by Sigur Ros and l'Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio).
Sadly, when I had to default to stretcher bars and canvases I couldn't complete the full order. 6 boxes of stretcher bars are on back order - from China. Does it mean I have no soul if I state for the record that I hope they aren't coming from the Sichuan province?
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