Hand-colored Ammonite Fossils

I hand-colored a few of the artist's proofs I made of my ammonite fossil prints for Builderblocks (see this post.) These two are now for sale on my Etsy store here and here.

Pair of Ammonite Fossils for the Builderblock Collection

I just finished carving and proofing my first submissions to Totemic17's Builderblock collection. This is a collection of 7cm square woodcut blocks from various artists that art-lovers can mix and match and order to be printed into original multi-block prints for purchase. Artists send in the carved blocks and Totemic17 prints and publishes them with a bio and URL on the webiste. The artists' are compensated $5. (50%) every time their blocks are selected by a collector making a purchase.

I printed a very small edition of these on heavy paper so I can play around with hand-coloring some of them. I'll post the results of that when I finish.

Art-lovers interested in purchasing a Builderblocks print, click here. Artists interested in submitting your own work for the collection, click here. (Totemic17 also sells 7cm square wood blocks for $1. each on their Supplies page.)

Thanks to Jeff White (whose print Silverbacks I wrote about a few days ago) for bringing this opportunity to my attention. I always love collaboration with other printmakers, and carving these was lots of fun.

"Silverbacks" by Jeff White

Image used with the permission of the artist. Jeff White is a publisher and project facilitator at Totemic17. Check out his website to learn more, and fellow printmakers check out this Open Call for Artists.

I am not big into celebrating Valentines Day or Presidents Day, but I do enjoy celebrating another holiday that happens every February 12: Darwin Day.

In college I first saw the satirical cartoons from naysayers of the Theory of Evolution, depicting Charles Darwin as an ape. (See below.) I remember thinking, Why is this an insult? Apes are beautiful, intelligent creatures. At the time I was still ignorant to how apes had been largely regarded by those in Western civilization as exhibiting all that is disgraceful about humankind.

Looking at apes as a kid, I thought it was obvious from appearances that we're closely related. I have an encounter burned into my memory of a gorilla at a zoo placing his hand on the glass enclosure that separated us, and being utterly struck by the similarities between his hand and mine.

My graduating exhibition at Ohio State University was titled "In Search of Ourselves." My major had been fine art, but I minored in physical anthropology and was fascinated by human evolution. Many of my paintings and prints at the time depicted great apes in a manner similar to this woodcut by Jeff White. In other words, images that sought to get across the emotional and social complexity of our closest cousins. I revisited this concept more recently with the first entry in Cats A-Z: All Ball.

In our correspondence, Jeff mentioned, "I don't know that I'd ever choose a kozo with mango leaf inclusions for anything else but I liked it with these gorillas!" I like it, too. There's something about how the leaves obscure and interrupt parts of the image of these two holding each other close. The scene is is already closely cropped, giving us only this moment of intimacy and affection, and even that seems to disintegrate a bit along the edges in a bustle of gouges and grain.

I feel something important, but not well-enough understood, is slipping away right before my eyes.