“Your hobby looks exhausting!”

A letter from the mailbag

Believe it or not, these scribbles are part of my work, not my hobby 😂

Hey y’all,

I got a reader email a few weeks ago with the subject line, “seeking to understand: why block prints? They make me tired”:

Looking at your and Roz Chast's block prints make me feel tired. Please don't take that as an insult as I love your work it usually energizes me.

I think of the process of making a block print, buying the carve sheet sets, experimenting and then making mistakes, and it would probably take the whole set to get a block print you like. And then you're out of sheets.

The 19th century Japanese block prints were amazing but the artists of that time lacked better tools.

Why? What is so great about making block prints?

I get a lot of email — most of it I’m not able to answer — but this one stuck with me, and I found myself writing various responses to it in my head.

First, I went on the defensive, like: Looking at Roz Chast makes you tired?!? What’s wrong with you?

Then I tried to be helpful, explaining that I use pages from old books so I don’t have worry about perfectionism or wasting “sheets” or whatever, and that the mistakes and imperfections are exactly what I’m going for.

Then I tried to educate, pointing out that the process is the reward for the work and that many artists choose not to work with cutting-edge technologies all the time.

I even tried to answer the email in a little video that said, Yes! It is exhausting, but it’s exhausting like going for a great swim! You feel used up but life is beautiful…

But the more I thought about it, the more I thought: Good! I’m glad it looks exhausting to you.

A good hobby should look a little exhausting.