Tuesday, October 27, 2020

Untitled (Created for the 2020 Emerald Print Exchange at Whiteaker Printmakers)

 

Untitled 
5" x 7" 
Woodcut 
Oil based ink on grey Stonehenge paper 
Open edition of 12 plus 6 artist proofs 

I created this print for this year's Emerald Print Exchange at Whiteaker Printmakers. All works from that exchange can be viewed online here


"The Wedding" Re-created

 

I re-created "The Wedding" print from my book "Owl and Cat In Love" recently. Click here to see the original. This new version is a 5 layer reduction and only an edition of 2. It was special made for a collector. It's also the mirror image of the original because I drew the image directly on the block.

It was definitely an interesting experience to re-create a print I first made 7 years ago. When I started, I really didn't want to do it. It felt like forcing myself to do something that I'd long moved on from. But about halfway through I kind of got into it. It felt a bit like visiting a place from my past that I don't go to anymore and that has changed, but of which I had very fond memories. 

Not that I want to do this again. It took a long time, and I am generally way more interested in finding time for my current projects, especially since my studio time is so limited. But yeah, glad I did this once just for the experience. 







"Lucy"

 

"Lucy" Woodcut Gamblin ink on Cream-colored Stonehenge 8" x 12" (block), 10" x 15" (paper) This a commemorative wood block print of an absolutely wonderful dog named Lucy. She recently passed away after a long, joyful life with her human who is a good friend of mine. Many good memories of this dog who had a calm, friendly personality (although she definitely knew how to tell off my old dog Choban when he got a little too into her personal space) and the softest fur. She is remembered fondly and missed by many.

"Sub Rise"

 

6" x 6" (image), 9" x 9" (paper)
3 layer reduction linocut
Oil-based ink (Gamblin)
Edition of 6

This is a print made to celebrate the latest birth of a child in my extended family. This new baby boy is my cousin's second child, and so I made his print as a companion piece to "Sky Ship" - a print I made for his big brother 5 years ago. Since that print featured sea creatures (flying fish) and a boat  in the sky, I decided to do an underwater scene but with creatures moving toward the light and the surface. In the other print a figure stands at the port of a sailboat, and here a figure looks out from the window of a toy-like submarine. Both images mean to depict a brightly colored world of possibilities and longing for discovery. 



The sea! the sea! the open sea!
The blue, the fresh, the ever free!
Without a mark, without a bound,
It runneth the earth's wide regions round!
It plays with the clouds; it mocks the skies;
Or like a cradled creature lies.

I'm on the sea! I'm on the sea!
I am where I would ever be;
With the blue above, and the blue below,
And silence wheresoe'er I go;
If a storm should come and awake the deep,
What mater? I shall ride and sleep.

                          From "The Sea" by Barry Cornwall