Alice in Wonderland, paragraph 141

8" x 12" (image) 11" x 15" (paper)

Water based ink on Kozo paper

Available for purchase here.

I created this woodcut illustration for paragraph #141 of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as part of the Alice Project/What is the Use of A Book Without Pictures. This is a project where a variety of artists illustrate Lewis Carroll's famous children's tale paragraph by paragraph. This is my third illustration for the project, and I wrote more about it here.

To give a little context to this image, Alice is speaking to a pigeon in the highest tree after her neck has grown so long that she can no longer see her body. The pigeon believes Alice is a snake who has come to eat her eggs. I decided to emphasize the anthropomorphized pigeon's point of view by making Alice seem particularly fearsome. The story of Alice in Wonderland turns out to be a dream, and even though it is Alice's dream, often in dreams the dreamer is able to see various points of view. Also, the relationship that children often have to animals is a power trip, in reaction to feeling powerless against adults in their lives. Animals typically fall below children in the totem poll, which is why mistreated children tend to mistreat pets. Not to say Alice is prone to abusing any animals, but after reading the stories, I believe that on some level she enjoys it when they fear her.

Paragraph #141 goes as follows:

‘I have tasted eggs, certainly,’ said Alice, who was a very truthful child, ‘but

little girls eat eggs quite as much as serpents do, you know.’

‘I don’t believe it,’ said the Pigeon, ‘but if they do, why then they’re a kind of

serpent, that’s all I can say.’

Alice In Wonderland, paragraph 121

8" x 12" (image) 10.25" x 15" (paper)

Water based ink on Stonehenge paper

Available for purchase here.

I created this woodcut illustration for paragraph #121 of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as part of the Alice Project/What is the Use of A Book Without Pictures. This is a project where a variety of artists illustrate Lewis Carroll's famous children's tale paragraph by paragraph. This is my second illustration for the project, and I wrote more about it here.

To give a little context to this image, Alice has been speaking with the Caterpillar and here she mis-recites "You Are Old, Father William" for him.

Paragraph #121 goes as follows:

‘I have answered three questions, and that is enough,’

Said his father; ‘don’t give yourself airs!

Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff?

Be off, or I’ll kick you down stairs!’

"Alice and the Caterpillar"

8" x 10" (image) 9" x 12.5" (paper)

Oil based ink on Kozo paper

Available for purchase here.

I created this woodcut illustration for paragraph #111 of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as part of the Alice Project/What is the Use of A Book Without Pictures. This is a project where a variety of artists illustrate Lewis Carroll's famous children's tale paragraph by paragraph. Black and white was a requirement, although I also have also done some hand-colored versions on Rives BFK.

Paragraph #111 goes as follows:

Alice thought she might as well wait, as she had nothing else to do, and perhaps after all it might tell her something worth hearing. For some minutes it puffed away without speaking, but at last it unfolded its arms, took the hookah out of its mouth again and said, ‘So you think you’re changed, do you?’

I recently re-read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland out loud to my infant daughter, and was struck by how rude and oblivious to potential dangers Alice can sometimes be. Even though it is the caterpillar speaking in this paragraph, I wanted to show the anger Alice feels toward him, so I decided on a double reflection of her expression in the caterpillar's huge eyes. Traditionally the caterpillar's face is rather anthropomorphized in illustrations. After all, he is engaged in pretty human activities: smoking and speaking. But re-reading the stories, I visualized a frightening beast. All insects, even sort-of-cute ones such as caterpillars are creepy things, and the thought of a human-sized one (relative to the shrunken Alice) was truly terrifying. So I decided to go with a more true-to-life rendering of the caterpillar with a face that hardly reads as one.