Screen Printing on Silk as an Antidepressant

I was really depressed today, one of those depressions that comes out of nowhere and clobbers you over the head leaving you dazed and lifeless. It was a sunny beautiful day but I could not get myself to go for a walk. I tried going for a ride with Don but all I wanted to do was get home. Once we did get back home I realized that I needed to distract myself so I went into the studio and did some doodling in my sketch journal. Then I started thinking how I would really like to do some screen printing on silk to make some art-cloth for these handbags I want to start making. I felt overwhelmed at the thought of getting everything out, mixing up the dyes with thickener, preparing the screen and setting up the screen printing table top, but I just decided that I needed to do this, I wanted to do this so I took it one task at a time and before I knew it I was set up and ready to rock and roll.

Once the dyes were prepared and I started printing I was really having fun, my energy was still really low but I was enjoying myself and loving the results I was getting on the silk. By the time I was finished my mood was so improved I didn’t even mind cleaning up all the dye cups and washing the screen and block printing tools. The distraction was wonderful and I feel as if some healthy brain chemicals have replaced the McNasty ones that were smothering me earlier in the day.