Groundhog Day 2020

It's that time of year again - Groundhog Day! The text on this card is from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, when the Red Queen is telling Alice how things work in Wonderland. In evolutionary biology, the Red Queen Hypothesis refers to the idea that organisms must constantly adapt and change in order to keep up with an ever changing environment. I cut the bottom of the card into a curve so that the card can rock back and forth to kinetically demonstrate that the running groundhog is literally going nowhere.

This is my 6th annual Groundhog Day card. If you'd like to see the previous years' designs, here are the links.

Groundhog Day 2014 
Groundhog Day 2015 (I skipped 2016)
Groundhog Day 2017
Groundhog Day 2018 
Groundhog Day 2019

"Sunset" Art Card for Owl and Cat In Love Pre-Sale Campaign

This is the fourth and final 2.5" x 3.5" art card I created for the Owl and Cat In Love Pre-sale Campaign. The first two cards are posted about here, and the third is posted about here. Anyone who pre-orders the book before its release will receive his or her choice of one of these cards.

This card is a white line woodcut. This is a process of woodcut printmaking where a line drawing is made on the woodblock, the lines are carved out, and then it is printed one section at a time using water-based paints. More can be learned about the process in this illustrated article by Jeanne Norman Chase. White line printmaking is also the method I am using for my series of eight male nudes and my recently started Dancing In the Garden picturebook.  

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 98% funded! 

"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! 

"Great Horned Owl" and "Margay" Art Cards for Owl and Cat In Love Pre-Sale Campaign

These are the first two of four 2.5" x 3.5" art cards I am creating for the Owl and Cat In Love Pre-sale Campaign. Anyone who pre-orders the book before its release will receive his or her choice of one of the cards.

These two are hand-printed in oil-based black ink on 90 lb. Natural-colored Stonehenge paper. They simply depict a great horned owl and a margay, the types of species after which I modeled the book's characters.

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.

Indiegogo Campaign Art Card #3: Owl Chachki

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

This is the third 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 little owl chachki that lives on a shelf at one of my friends' houses. I was babysitting all our kids one day and ended up drawing it, and that eventually lead to this image. 

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!