I have now returned from the Illinois Ink Quest. Sadly, while Chicago is a fantastic city, I could find nowhere that stocked Omas Sepia, the mythical ink that continues to elude me. The wonderful man in Gilbertson Clybourn let me play with all sorts of pens and inks, but he told me that they stopped stocking Omas products several years ago. The journey was not entirely wasted, however, for I managed to obtain some Levenger Cocoa ink, which is - as its name suggests - a lovely, rich, dark brown (not unlike Waterman Havana, in fact). For the return journey, the bottle was neurotically wrapped in several plastic bags and placed upright in my carry-on luggage. Unfortunately, though, the overhead storage locker in the plane was designed in such a way that it made keeping a piece of luggage perfectly level impossible. For nearly eight hours, I sat and anxiously waited for the first few brown drops to drip onto the head of the man sitting in front of me.
Tracking down Edward Hopper's Nighthawks proved to be something of a trial. On my first morning in the city, I waited patiently for the Art Institute to open at 10am, bought my ticket, and headed straight for the relevant room. Turning the corner to greet the picture, though, I was faced with a blank wall and a small sign that read 'Removed for Restoration'. (To make matters worse, it was written in ballpoint and dated the day before my arrival.) I rushed to the information desk to ask when the picture would return. The woman pulled a 'Don't get your hopes up' face, made a few phonecalls, and then announced that the painting would be back on the wall for me by 4pm. That evening, then, I crept back under cover - appropriately enough - of darkness and perched in front of Nighthawks, my back turned to the world. I sat there alone in the gallery for about half an hour, finally face to face with what I had only ever seen in reproduction. Perhaps it was just the jetlag, but I had, for the briefest of moments, a blasphemous inkling that paint had outdrawn ink.
Inks in use today: Levenger Cocoa; Noodler's Walnut.
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