"Pigling Bland and Pig-Wig"

 

"Pigling Bland and Pig-Wig" 
12" x 12" 
4 color reduction woodcut 

This is the first woodcut for my "Some Pigs" project, an AiRM which will culminate in a solo exhibition at 1040 Creative in November of this year. 

This particular print illustrates the final scene in Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Pigling Bland, where the title character and his soulmate Pig-Wig manage to escape from their wretched circumstances into freedom in the wilderness, where Pigling has plans to settle down and become a potato farmer. The text in the print is from a traditional British song, excerpts of which are included in Potter's story.  

Ethnicity Through the Eyes of the Artist

 

"Practicing Accordion"
9" x 12" 
Linocut with chine colle 

This depicts my 11 year old practicing their instrument while the puppies howl. I made it to submit to the exhibition "Ethnicity Through the Eyes of the Artist" at Abington Art Center, juried by Erika Land, Nina Guzman, and Cheryl Harper. I was already going to submit recent versions of "Stirring" and "Chopping" (below), but I could include 3 works in my submission, so I decided to make this print in the same medium and style. This print wasn't accepted into the show, but I'm so glad I made it. 

Happily, "Stirring" and "Chopping" will be included in the exhibition, which opens June 9th (reception from 6-8PM) and runs through July 24. 

Year of the Rabbit 2023

 

My Year of the Rabbit print for a card exchange with Baren Forum. The one I mailed out was printed in black ink on fawn-colored Stonehenge with white paper chine colle for the rabbit. But this version I made for myself, with chine colle for all the sections. We haven't had much of a winter in PA this season, so I wanted a brown hare, not a white one. 

This is my 6th year participating in  New Year's Exchanges with the Baren Forum for Woodblock Printmaking. Here are my prints from previous years' trades: 

Year of the Tiger, 2022
Year of the Ox, 2021 
Year of the Rat, 2020
Year of the Pig, 2019 
Year of the Dog. 2018 

Groundhog Day 2023

 

Yes, the world is on fire and we're all perpetually burned out. So catch that second (or third, fourth, tenth...) wind, and get going! Do good art (or other good stuff)! Help others! Find joy! WHATEVER IT TAKES. 

This is my 9th annual Groundhog Day card. Here are links to all the previous cards: 

Groundhog Day 2014 
Groundhog Day 2015 (I skipped 2016)
Groundhog Day 2017
Groundhog Day 2018 
Groundhog Day 2019
Groundhog Day 2020 
Groundhog Day 2021
Groundhog Day 2022 

MEGAfauna Summer Fellowship

This summer I worked with K-6th grade campers, making prints and a baby mammoth! This was for the Summer Spree camp at the Community Art Center.

This year's camp theme was BIG TIME, and of course having been an artist/scientist-in-residence at the Wagner for ten years, the first thing that came to mind was mammoths. 

For this project, I taught the campers about the extinction of megafauna of North America at the end of the Pleistocene, and we then used those animals as inspiration for relief prints. Campers also learned about baby mammoth mummies like Yuka and Lyuba who were frozen in ice for tens of thousands of years before being discovered by humans. We used that as inspiration to create a full sized baby mammoth of our own, using wire armature, plaster wrap, acrylic paint, and yarn.

This was my 4th year doing a summer fellowship at CAC. The other projects were: 
Pollinators, 2021 
Whose Hoo Around the World, 2019 
Big Relief!, 2018 

Dale's Herons

Dale's Herons
Woodcut and linocut in 3 layers 
12" x 8" (image) This print is a tribute to my Uncle Dale who just passed away. It was based on photographs he took of 2 herons making a nest. During his retirement, Dale traveled and volunteered at National Parks, and during his travels he took many beautiful photographs that he posted on social media. Even though I couldn't visit with him because of COVID these past couple years, I really enjoyed the photos, and making this print gave me some comfort. 

Groundhog Day 2022

 

woodcut printed in oil-based ink on Kraft cardstock

This year the good ol' groundhog can't even be bothered to come out. Shadow or not, he's staying in his hole. 

While hopefully viewers find some humor here, it is a dark humor. I wish this year's Groundhog Day card design could have been more positive. We're now into the third year of a global pandemic that is gradually shifting to endemic. Still scary, but we're also all just so damned fatigued. It's hard to get excited about anything anymore because so many plans have been cancelled. Most of us who have survived this thing are now a couple years older, poorer, and more melancholy than we were before it began. Work is far more constant than joy.

Who could blame the fuzzy little guy for his reluctance to emerge? 

This is my 8th annual Groundhog Day card. If you'd like to see the previous years' designs, here are the links.

Groundhog Day 2014 
Groundhog Day 2015 (I skipped 2016)
Groundhog Day 2017
Groundhog Day 2018 
Groundhog Day 2019
Groundhog Day 2020 
Groundhog Day 2021