Winter Chickadees 
10" x 15" 
Printed on Canford Card in Imperial Champagne with oil based black ink
Edition of 16 

This was made for Baren Forum Exchange #102 

Plump chickadees perch
on icy branches, seeking
midwinter bounty 

"Fox and Mouse" (There But For the Grace of God)

 

Fox and Mouse (There But For the Grace of God) 
Watercolors and water-based ink on snow white Canford paper 
Hashira-e (28 x 4.5 inches) 
Edition of 34 

This is my print for the 100th Exchange for the Baren Forum for Woodblock printmaking. It was supposed to be a Mokuhanga print. This is a traditional Japanese technique for woodblock printmaking which involves water-based pigments which are brushed on, printing with a traditional baren, multiple colors with careful registration, and using Washi paper. This print is more inspired by traditional Japanese printmaking as I do not have any formal training in Mokuhanga and don't have all the traditional tools and supplies. That said, I'm very happy with these results!

The background colors for this print are the most in line with Mokuhanga - they were brushed on watercolors, hand printed with my trusty wooden spoon. I tried a couple with my glass Iron Frog baren, but it didn't work as well as my spoon. The fox, mouse, and coneflowers were printed in 2 layers, both with water-based block printing ink which I did roll on with a brayer and then print with the spoon again. I thought about trying to do it all as brushed on watercolors, but that wasn't going to work out as well with the drawing I have come up with, so I went with the method that I thought would serve the image better. 

Sadly, the only reason the paper is Canford and not a type of Washi is because I'm broke. I'm a teacher who gets paid much less for 2 months in the summer and I got 2 teens who eat like adults. I had this lovely Canford paper in my studio and it is soft yet strong and didn't distort after being wetted, so it seemed a suitable alternative. 

Regarding the paper dimensions and imagery, what I enjoyed the most about this exchange was the challenge of coming up with a drawing that would fit into the tall, skinny rectangle. Even though I live in the city, we have a lot of foxes that I've seen stalking around at night on occasion. And of course mice are always a problem in big cities. I deliberately drew the pouncing fox smaller so it would seem that he is farther away and thus focused on some other prey outside of our view. The subtitle refers to the little mouse hiding behind the flower - she is safe at least for the moment. 

"Four Season Finches"

 

Four Season Finches 
Linocut with oil based ink and chine collé on white Stonehenge 
10" x 15" 
Edition of 34

This was for Baren Forum Exchange #99. When I bought my first house, one of the first things I did was plant sunflowers, and I was thrilled to find that they attracted beautiful yellow finches. I didn't know then that the finches lose their bright yellow plumage in the fall/winter. Now every summer I look forward to seeing these beautiful little birds in their summer coats. 

"Incalescence"

 

This is a print for Baren Forum exchange No. 83. The theme was COLOR FIELD. It is 6” x 14”, water based relief ink in 2 layers on white Bristol paper. 

"Bound for Pennsylvania"

"Bound for Pennsylvania"
5" x 7"
Five-layer reduction wood block print 
Oil-based Gamblin ink on white Stonehenge paper
Edition of 36

This is the print I submitted to Baren Forum for Wood Block Printmaking's Exchange No. 82. The theme for the exchange was "Exodus". About a year ago I adopted an old Redbone Coonhound. He had been found at a shelter in Georgia and would have been euthanized had he not been rescued by an organization that moves abandoned dogs from overpopulated areas to places where they are more likely to be adopted. We picked him out at the shelter in Media, Pennsylvania. He was wearing an aqua bowtie, which I guess had been put on to showcase him as a particularly handsome gentleman. He has turned out to be a very affectionate, friendly, food-driven guy, who even now seems baffled by his new life in the big city. We named him "Mutlu" which is Turkish for "happy". 

"Binge Watching"

"Binge Watching"
10 x 15 inches 
Woodcut
Open edition

This is the print I submitted to Baren Forum for Wood Block Printmaking's Exchange No. 81. There was no theme. I'd been watching a lot of Netflix late at night, so I made a self portrait of that. 

"Bee and Flower"

"Bee and Flower"
10" x 10"
Oil-based ink on Mulberry paper

This is the print I submitted to Baren Forum for Wood Block Printmaking's Exchange No. 80. The theme for the exchange was "Unity".

"Rainbow Leaf Beetle"

“Rainbow Leaf Beetle”, 3 block woodcut for the Baren Forum for Woodblock Printmaking’s Exchange No. 79, edition of 30. 

I wanted to make a print using process magenta, cyan and yellow because I‘ve been doing color printmaking with some of my students. What better subject for this than a rainbow leaf beetle?

Year of the Dog Baren Exchange

Tomorrow will be the Lunar New Year. According to the Chinese zodiac, the year of the dog will have ended, and the year of the pig will begin.

Last year was the first year that I participated in the Baren Forum for Wood Block Printmaking's Chinese New Year card exchange. For that exchange, I made this little hand-colored print of Mary, the chiweenie that we had recently adopted. I received most of the cards from other participants around January-March of last year, though some came later, and it's been fun to have them trickle in. I recently received the last of my dog cards (all that I've received are shown in this post.) Thanks to all of the artists who made these cards, some quirky, some quiet and contemplative, some bold, and some surprising. I absolutely love this little collection.

I am participating in the Year of the Pig exchange, and tomorrow I will post about my print for it.

"Mr. Peabody"

I made this print for the owner of the dog's birthday and also printed an edition of 23 for the Baren Forum for Woodblock Printmaking Exchange #77. The image is 9" x 12", paper is 10" x 15", and it was printed with oil-based Gamlin block printing ink on fawn-colored Stonehenge paper.

Highlights from Baren Forum Exchange #76 3/3

Harmony by Anne van Oppen

Final highlights from Baren Forum Exchange #76. 

A small spider dangles from a bit of web stuck to an index finger. In a moment the bug will land on the foliage beside it and crawl away into the folds of the leaves, and the person will serenely watch them go. 

Memory by Theresa Martin

Upon seeing this second print, I wondered who Wiesel was. I googled and quickly found Elie Wiesel, and knew that was the correct person because something about this print had made me think of Holocaust survivors. The aged and weary face that looks out with such an expression of gratitude speaks volumes. It is the expression of one who can feel immense appreciation for all of life's moments, however small - such as a brief and peaceful encounter outside with a garden spider. 

Highlights from Baren Forum Exchange #76 2/3

Humanity by Brad Ladwig

More highlights from Baren Forum's Exchange #76. 

With these two prints, the theme of humanity is represented in the abstract. Brad Ladwig's people remind me of Leo Lionni's picturebook Little Blue and Little Yellow, as all the people are shown as circles of color. In Lionni's story, the colors are at first separate, but then they mix, and become unrecognizable to those around them. 

Conversely, in Ladwig's print, the circles are all together in the same bowl, still, static and distinctly separated from each other. As Kahil Gibran wrote On Marriage: "let there be spaces in your togetherness." 

Interconnected, You & Me by Diane Cutter

Diane Cutter's print perhaps shows what happens if the circles intermingle but instead of blending their colors, they create new shape, rather like the intermingling of oil and water. The shapes morph like a lava lamp, creating new shapes as they go, though it seems no matter how much they intermingle, creating ever increasingly complex designs, the even percentages of stark black and white will persist. 

Looking longer at these images, they both seem to illustrate a sort of pluralism, where participants of equal value manage to meaningfully retain their differences as they share the same space with each other. 

Highlights from Baren Forum Exchange #76 1/3

Stand up and be heard! by Chris Doogan

These are some highlights from Baren Forum's Exchange #76 - another particularly excellent set of prints. Thanks to all who participated.

To start, I'm just going to leave these two here, and viewers can make of the pairing what you will. I don't have any specific point to make. With all the talk of gun violence in America, with the inevitable suicides via firearms that are so common here, and the cringing I personally endure all summer as the news reports of shooting rise with the heat, I simply want to share with the viewers of this blog the experience of leafing through my latest pile of new prints and contemplating the juxtaposition.

Sniper by Anthony DiMichele

Highlights from Baren Forum Exchange #75 2/2

Part 2 after yesterday's part 1. For my second post highlighting some of my favorite prints from Baren Forum Exchange #75 I've decided to feature two landscape: Sauvie's Island by Barbara Mason and Saou by Abel Dewitz 

We've been here many times before. It's so familiar, we keep designating it as a place to meet up. It only exists in our mind's eye, a memory of a few shapes and colors. The details aren't important for our purposes. It is a sudden grasp, a deep inhale, a purposeful opening of our eyes after a period of dark retreat inward. The world is still out there. In there. Over, out, and above.

This will all fall away. Break up, drift apart, and disappear.

Highlights from Baren Forum Exchange #75 1/2

I'm rather late posting these highlights of Baren Exchange #75 (I've already also received the prints from #76 - will post those highlights later this week), but they also were delivered late, and big whoop, later is better than never.

I've selected these two to feature first - if I'm  honest - for personal reasons, both sentimental and existential.

Wait, don't I always do that?

I spent a lot of time around children or by myself, and so I'm perpetually hungry for contact with other adults. Not boring small talk, but intelligent or at least juicy conversation. So when I looked at Therese Krupp's Over Coffee... I couldn't help but identify with the figure on the right who seems to just be yap yapping away, while the figure on the left looks ahead, sipping coffee. There's no clear indication of how either of these people feel or what they are discussing. I don't know if the person sipping is all that invested in what she's hearing her companion say or not. It's all just sounds, and a big, red rectangle, and steam rising up from mugs, and the smell of coffee, and this is the wallpaper of one sort of human experience.

So then there's this Still Life - Bananas and Coffee, by Brad Ladwig, and I'm in my kitchen, alone again, staring at this carafe I use every day, this fruit I bought at the grocery store yesterday, and I'll buy another bunch next week, and the week after that, and I'm just utterly struck by this pretty, but lonely, awkward, and incomplete moment, that is so much like many others, and yet it is this moment, right here, now, and never again.