And so it goes throughout the evening. Good day or bad, by this time Gail is usually in the flow and is rapidly completing the pieces that have been almosting it all day. Oftentimes Randy cannot catch up. Around 10 o’clock he makes a light supper which they eat in the small studio and then hurry back to work. Between 11 and midnight, with great reluctance, Gail decides she’s done. Then as often as not, she does another piece: “one last one.”

Done, however, does not mean finished. Gail puts on a respirator, invariably muttering how much she hates it, and begins cleaning her tools with mineral spirits. Randy turns on the radio and exhaust fan and, except in the coldest weather, opens a door or window. When he has printed the last plate, he also puts on a respirator, also hating it. He cleans the remaining ink from the plates with vegetable oil, then the film of oil with de-natured alcohol. They both work at cleaning the palettes, putting the inks back into compact puddles and removing the residue with spirits.

While Gail finishes up, covering the inks with wax paper, putting away the tools and portable table, loosening the rollers on the press and covering the blankets against dust, and emptying the trash, Randy changes blotters. Each monotype is removed from the damp first blotters (color-coded red) and placed between dry ones (black), and the whole pile is weighted with up to 6 pieces of particle board. He lays out the wet blotters on the drying rack, turns off the radio and lights, and they go upstairs to shower. It’s usually between 1 and 2 in the morning.

The next day, they’re slow getting started. At some point in the afternoon, they change blotters. The red set is collected and put away to make room for the black. Together they look at each piece, discussing what needs to be done to it, before covering it with a clean sheet of newsprint, putting it between dry blotters (coded with yellow), and replacing the weights. On the second day after printing, they change the blotters (white) a last time, and on the third day, the monotypes are ready for Gail to work on. But that’s another story.