Year of the Rabbit 2023

 

My Year of the Rabbit print for a card exchange with Baren Forum. The one I mailed out was printed in black ink on fawn-colored Stonehenge with white paper chine colle for the rabbit. But this version I made for myself, with chine colle for all the sections. We haven't had much of a winter in PA this season, so I wanted a brown hare, not a white one. 

This is my 6th year participating in  New Year's Exchanges with the Baren Forum for Woodblock Printmaking. Here are my prints from previous years' trades: 

Year of the Tiger, 2022
Year of the Ox, 2021 
Year of the Rat, 2020
Year of the Pig, 2019 
Year of the Dog. 2018 

"Tiger Mandala" (Year of the Tiger 2022)

 

My Year of the Tiger print for a card exchange with Baren Forum. This is a hand-colored linocut printed on white Stonehenge. 

I've done a few hand-colored mandalas in the same style as this before. It's simply the same image rotated and repeated 4 times. The difference with this one is that this whole image is a single carved block. 

Originally I was going to do something simpler. I wanted to do a tiger chasing it's own tail. But the more I fiddled around with ideas, the more I just wanted to make another elaborate mandala. It's much more time consuming, especially when I color them, but so worth the final product. 

This is my 5th year participating in  New Year's Exchanges with the Baren Forum for Woodblock Printmaking. Here are my prints from previous years' trades: 

Year of the Ox, 2021 
Year of the Rat, 2020
Year of the Pig, 2019 
Year of the Dog. 2018 

"Musk Ox" (2021 Year of the Ox)

 

My Year of the Ox print for a card exchange with Baren Forum. This is a 2 layer reduction on Kraft card stock. It depicts an arctic musk ox.

Given that these are hard times (pandemic, global warming, worsening economic and other disparities) the musk ox seemed a good species to celebrate 2021. They are wild animals that live in the harshest conditions. They live in herds and the strongest among them protect the weakest. We could take some inspiration from these noble beasts. 

This is my 4th year participating in  New Year's Exchanges with the Baren Forum for Woodblock Printmaking. Here are my prints from previous years' trades: 

Year of the Rat, 2020
Year of the Pig, 2019 
Year of the Dog. 2018 

"Audubon and the Rat" (New Year's Exchange)

 

My Year of the Rat print for a card exchange with Baren Forum.

The inspiration for this image came initially from the great illustrator and naturalist John James Audubon. When looking for visual references to rats, I found myself pouring over his detailed works. Teaching at the Wagner, I walked past copies of Audubon's etchings of North American flora and fauna at work, and have referred to them many times while teaching my students. 

While surfing on line to look at more illustrations of rats by Audubon, I stumbled across this story about him discovering that a box of his watercolor paintings had been destroyed by a rat that had used the paintings to make its nest. The story was beautifully illustrated in a woodcut  (featured below) by an unidentified Japanese Meiji artist. 

This is my 3rd year participating in  New Year's Exchanges with the Baren Forum for Woodblock Printmaking. Here are my prints from previous years' trades: 

Year of the Pig, 2019 
Year of the Dog. 2018 

"Pigs In A Blanket" (Chinese New Year Exchange)

Happy Lunar New Year! This is my Year of the Pig 2019 card for the Baren Forum's Chinese New Year Exchange. It is dedicated to my child Bebe who is currently obsessed with pigs.

This is a 4" x 5" linocut printed with black Caligo safe wash relief ink, hand colored with Prismacolor markers and watercolor paint. I still have 7 more to hand-color, so they will be sent out a little late, but worth the color.

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.

My Year of the Dog Woodcut

This is a little 2.75" x 4" woodcut of one of our new family dogs - "Mary" (a little, black chiweenie) that I did for this year's Chinese New Year Exchange through the Baren Forum for Woodblock Printmaking. It's the Year of the Dog. I'm going to try some hand-coloring before I decide whether the cards I send out will be black and white or color.