"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! 

Indiegogo Campaign Art Card #7: Sphinx in Sweater

2.5" x 3.5" art card
Oil-based ink on cream-colored, 90" smooth paper
Open edition

This is the sixth of 8 original woodcut art cards being created during my Indiegogo fundraising campaign. These will be thank-you gifts for all funders who contribute $20 or more. Funders will get to choose their preferred design to receive.

This card depicts a hairless cat wearing a sweater. Enough said. 

Indiegogo Campaign Art Card #4: Cat Chachki

2.5" x 3.5" art card
Oil-based ink on cream-colored, 90" smooth paper
Open edition

This is the fourth of 8 original woodcut art cards being created during my Indiegogo fundraising campaign. These will be thank-you gifts for all funders who contribute $20 or more. Funders will get to choose their preferred design to receive.

This was inspired by a set of nesting dolls (all painted to look like cats) my daughter received from her grandparents for Christmas one year. 

Indiegogo Campaign Art Card #2: Portrait of Frida Kahlo

2.5" x 3.5" art card
Oil-based ink on cream-colored, 90" smooth paper
Open edition

This is the second of 8 original woodcut art cards being created during my Indiegogo fundraising campaign. These will be thank-you gifts for all funders who contribute $20 or more. Funders will get to choose their preferred design to receive.

This is a portrait of Frida Kahlo. Kahlo was one of the first artists whose work captured my attention and influenced my own work. I first learned about her paintings when I was in junior high. At the age of 17 I had the good fortune to visit Mexico, including her home which has been turned into an art museum. In graduate school, even though I wasn't looking at or thinking much about Kahlo's work, faculty and fellow students regularly brought Kahlo's influence up in critiques of my work.

I intended this print to simply be a black and white art card. However, after creating it I realized how well it lends itself to hand-coloring. The color version is printed on watercolor paper.

Both cards are for sale on my Etsy store. The black and white version can be found here, and the color can be found here. All proceeds from Etsy sales between now and April 24th go directly to fund Words On Woodcuts Press!   

Triumphant In Achieving My Indiegogo Campaign Goal!

I have reached my Indiegogo campaign goal! Words On Woodcuts Press will undoubtedly become a reality with the publication of Cats A-Z this summer. 

The monumental woodcut print shown here is Triumphal Arch. It is one of the largest prints ever produced, and was commissioned by Emperor Maximillian I to be displayed on walls in palaces and city halls. 

It also perfectly illustrates how awesome I feel right now!

Thank you to everyone who has contributed and shared information about this campaign.

THE FOCUS NOW: 

While I've cleared the first hurtle, I still need to raise additional funds to enact my business plan. I've applied for an interest-free, crowd-sourced small business loan and am currently waiting for approval to launch that campaign. Any funds I raise through Indiegogo that exceed $2000 go to reduce the amount I have to borrow to make this small press a reality. And that increases my press's chances for long-term success.

The Indiegogo campaign runs through April 24th. Help me keep spreading the word. Also, check in on this blog where I'll be posting eight original woodcut art cards as thank-you gifts for all the funders. 

90% Funded in the First Day - WOW!

Yesterday morning I launched my Indiegogo campaign to fund a small press. Today I woke up with that campaign already 90% funded. Well over 100 friends, acquaintances and even strangers shared my campaign. My GoGo Factor is through the roof, with my campaign featured on the front of the Indiegogo website and the top campaign in the Art section.

So much support... I'm overwhelmed with gratitude. 

Even though independent publishing was something I'd been seriously considering for almost three years, and researching and planning for months, I felt rife with apprehension. After all, Words On Woodcuts is just a one woman operation out of my home studio, and I have other responsibilities as a part time art educator and raising my two little girls. 

For your amusement, here is my favorite outtake from filming the video pitch. The person filming (whose voice you will hear) is my 5-year-old daughter. We filmed this while her toddler sister was napping. It was the only time of day when the lighting in my studio was good. 

Special thanks to my friend KM Scott (author of Legends of Steragos) for doing all the video editing. If I'd had to learn to do it myself, I never would have finished in time to launch on Friday the 13th.

As I hit the "launch" button on my fundraising campaign yesterday morning, I still worried I wouldn't be able to raise the necessary $2000 during a 42 campaign. Today I'm wondering how much I can raise beyond that goal to reduce the size of the necessary business loan and increase the press's chances of long-term success. 

From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU ALL!!! 

Help Me Launch Words On Woodcuts Press!

Two weeks ago I announced that I'm launching Words On Woodcuts Press to publish beautifully-crafted books which will feature my woodcuts.

Today, the fundraising begins!

Check out my Indiegogo campaign here. There are all kinds of goodies, including original woodcuts from my studio and signed copies of the books if you can donate.

Keep checking up with this blog. Over the 42 days of the campaign, I'll create 8 original art card woodcuts to give as additional thank-you gifts for donors.

If you can't contribute funds, that's fine. Just help me spread the word. Thanks!