Saturday, June 29, 2013

Owie


"I'm just like anyone.
I cut and I bleed."

-- Michael Jackson

Boo boo finger face 6-29-13


"Tragedy is when I cut my finger. 
Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die."

-- Mel Brooks


Linoleum block with actual blood drop  6-29-13

"Mishaps are like knives, 
that either serve us or cut us, 
as we grasp them by the blade or the handle."

-- James Russell Lowell

Nobody can say I am not willing to bleed for my art.

I was carving a linoleum block self portrait, and the knife slipped and jabbed hard into my left thumb.

It hurt, but not too bad, and so I put a Bugs Bunny bandage on it and kept carving.

I should have known better.

I should have had enough common sense to realize what a knife that can cut through hard linoleum might be able to do soft flesh.

I should have put on some gloves.

Should-a. Could-a. Would-a.

A few moments later the knife slipped again, and this time I seriously cut the shit out of my left index finger. 

It hurt.

It bled.

A lot.

How does that saying go?

"If it happens once it's a mistake. If it happens twice, it's a choice."

Lucky for me there was a doctor in the house.

He injected a syringe full of Lidocaine into my finger to numb it, then scrubbed out all of the linoleum block debris and sewed me up with 8 stitches. 

He swaddled my "Frankenfinger" and said I was lucky because I just missed cutting the tendon.

I, of course, gave my boo boo finger a little sad face and took its picture.

I also gave him a name.

I'm calling him "Art."