"Five Reclining Black Cats" by Tadashige Nishida

A single black mass
So many heads with eyes to
Peer, gawk, squint or blink

More Cats by Inagaki Tomoo

If I'm featuring a short run of haikus in response to cat prints by Japanese printmakers, I just gotta include one by Inagaki Tomoo.

A muscular pair of gargoyles
Perched on the midnight watch
The moon winks

Two Cats and a Lemon by Ido Masao

What can I say, I'm on a haiku-paired-with-cat-prints-by-Japanese-printmakers streak. Although Ido Masao is a wee bit more contemporary than Kiyoshi Saito or Junichiro Sekino. I predict the streak will last through Halloween.


Juicy, black squiggle
Mirrored by a pale foil
Calligraphy come to life

"Seated Cat" by Kiyoshi Saito

Monday I wrote a haiku in response to a print of a white cat by a different 20th-century Japanese printmaker, Today, how about a black cat? Halloween is on Saturday, after all.

The eyes say it all
She is present, yet undone
Ink staining the grain

Reduction Relief Prints by 4th Graders at UCAL

I love getting kids to do reduction prints. Typically they've never done it before, and many of them are pretty ho-hum about it until they pull that first print that has two layers of color, and then they get all excited about the effect of layering.

These are my three favorite prints (2 different color version of each) made by my 2D Mixed Media class for 3rd-6th graders at the University City Arts League in West Philadelphia. I'm teaching the same class again in the winter term.

"White Cat" by Junichiro Sekino

Funny how this white cat reminds me of landscapes, and the last white cat I wrote about on this blog (also with its tail cropped at the bottom of the picture plane,) too, reminded me of landscapes. Although Arthur Rigden Read's is more stately and Junichiro Sekino's is more stormy.

For this white cat I humbly offer this haiku:

Body as landscape
Pointed tuffs of fur as trees
Blown down in the wind

"Blowing Bubbles"

I made this for a print exchange: [Baren] Exchange #66. The image is 6" x 8" and the paper is 8" x 10". It is a white line woodcut printed with watercolors on white Stonehenge paper. For this exchange I am printing an edition of 23 in these colors, but I can print more from this block in the future. It takes about 40 minutes to print each one, so I have a bit of work to do over the next week and a half before they are due to be mailed! 

"Sunset" Art Card for Owl and Cat In Love Pre-Sale Campaign

This is the fourth and final 2.5" x 3.5" art card I created for the Owl and Cat In Love Pre-sale Campaign. The first two cards are posted about here, and the third is posted about here. Anyone who pre-orders the book before its release will receive his or her choice of one of these cards.

This card is a white line woodcut. This is a process of woodcut printmaking where a line drawing is made on the woodblock, the lines are carved out, and then it is printed one section at a time using water-based paints. More can be learned about the process in this illustrated article by Jeanne Norman Chase. White line printmaking is also the method I am using for my series of eight male nudes and my recently started Dancing In the Garden picturebook.  

Fans of Words On Woodcuts Press can also support the publication of this second book by lending money through my Kiva Zip business loan campaign - which as I write this is up to 98% funded! 

"Love At First Sight" Art Card for Owl and Cat In Love Pre-Sale Campaign

This is the third of four 2.5" x 3.5" art cards I am creating for the Owl and Cat In Love Pre-sale Campaign. Here's a link to the post featuring the first two cards. Anyone who pre-orders the book before its release will receive his or her choice of one of the cards.

This card is hand-printed in water-based black ink on lime green card stock. My inspiration for illustrating Lear's The Owl and the Pussycat originally came from the image of the owl and cat first looking deeply into each other's equally large, round eyes, so this seemed an appropriate phrase to include in one of the art cards. 

Fans of Words On Woodcuts Press can also support the publication of this second book by lending money through my Kiva Zip business loan campaign - which as I write this is up to 96% funded! 

"Great Horned Owl" and "Margay" Art Cards for Owl and Cat In Love Pre-Sale Campaign

These are the first two of four 2.5" x 3.5" art cards I am creating for the Owl and Cat In Love Pre-sale Campaign. Anyone who pre-orders the book before its release will receive his or her choice of one of the cards.

These two are hand-printed in oil-based black ink on 90 lb. Natural-colored Stonehenge paper. They simply depict a great horned owl and a margay, the types of species after which I modeled the book's characters.

Fans of Words On Woodcuts Press can also support the publication of this second book by lending money through my Kiva Zip business loan campaign.