"Memento Mori" (for Aubrey)

This is my latest white line woodcut. It was created in memory of my cat Aubrey, the most awesome cat in the universe, who passed at the beginning of the summer. An edition of 20 was printed for Baren Forum Exchange #74. It is hand printed with a wooden spoon with watercolors on 90 lb cold press watercolor paper.

Having slept, the cat gets up,
yawns, goes out to make love.
-Kobayashi Issa 

Two Cats and a Lemon by Ido Masao

What can I say, I'm on a haiku-paired-with-cat-prints-by-Japanese-printmakers streak. Although Ido Masao is a wee bit more contemporary than Kiyoshi Saito or Junichiro Sekino. I predict the streak will last through Halloween.


Juicy, black squiggle
Mirrored by a pale foil
Calligraphy come to life

Bookplate for Al Gury

Oil-based black ink on 90 lb. Natural Stonehenge paper, 4" x 4", edition of 25 plus 2 artist's proofs.

Al Gury is a painter, author, and professor at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He's also a cat lover and recently commissioned this bookplate for his literary collection. It's in the style of the prints from my Cats A-Z series/book.

I enjoyed making this a lot, especially drawing the lounging cat. He looks pretty relaxed. The Cats A-Z series is printed on bright white paper, but this is printed on a more cream-colored Natural paper (Al Gury's suggestion), which I think better suits the mood of the piece.

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. 

With Cats On Our Laps

Bug On the Ceiling 
White line woodcut (unique print)
Watercolor on Stonehenge
10" x 33" (block), 15" x 40" (paper)

This is a self portrait holding my cat Aubrey. I got the idea and began work on it after doing a little white line portrait of myself last September. I'm gearing up for my next book project, which will be all white line woodcuts.

The title, Bug On the Ceiling, is meant to be bit humorous. Certain elements of this print point toward religious imagery, specifically alluding to Mary chosen by God to mother the Christ-child. But it's not a baby she holds, it's a cat. What seems a light on the woman's head is wood grain, and all other representational imagery is plant-life, distinctly earth-bound. Finally, there's the title, letting the viewer in on the totally mundane of reasons why she's looking up.

I'm not mocking religious sentiment so much as I'm attempting to elevate the every-day.

M.C. Escher made this woodcut, Seated Man With Cat On His Lap in 1919. In it, the subject is just as centralized in the composition, but he doesn't look up; he confronts his viewers. Boy that guy can look deadly serious even with a big curled-up cat in his lap. Reminds me of Cardinal Richelieu, who used to sign death warrants while his cats sat on his lap. (Richelieu had 14 cats, including one named Ludovic the Cruel.)

I love how this man's suit and chair just sort of melt into the flatness. His head practically floats. The Prophet Mohammed is said to have once cut off a piece of his clothing rather than disturb his pet cat who was sleeping on it. Perhaps there is something transcendent about the companionship of these domesticated carnivores, who have not the loyalty of dogs, nor the nobility of horses. We initially kept them to kill vermin in our granaries. Now they occupy the most intimate of spaces in our homes, even anchoring down our very bodies.

I keep making woodcuts. Different kinds of woodcuts. I make books now so I can make a whole series of woodcuts on a theme or to tell a story. Another artist friend of mine recently said to me, "Not everything needs to be a woodcut." But almost everything kind of does need to be woodcut! Because I haven't hit a wall with that. I keep finding new avenues to explore with it. It's only the same old thing over and over again if I let it be. I must stay in this small place I currently occupy; dig deeper to find whole new layers of sediment; look longer through the keyhole to find what few others have noticed.

Lots of times I hear Peggy Lee's voice in my head, singing, Is this all there is? Yeah, this is all there is. And at least most days, it's enough.

"Sitting" by Roger Walkup

Image posted with the permission of the artist. More of Roger Walkup's prints can be found at his website and for sale online here. 

I wrote about another print by Roger Walkup during Naked July here. He mentioned that "Gretchen" (the woman depicted in this image) is the subject of many of his prints, including his Morning and Evening series. 

The woman sits on the floor, though there is an empty chair beside her. She seems engaged, perhaps in a conversation with someone cut off from our view. She prefers the floor. Why not, given what a bright and cheery pattern is found there. On the floor she can be closer to her her beverage. She can cross her legs without any restrictions. 

Note the cat whose head, chest, and paw jut out from the perch where he lounges. Often it's good to spread out, get comfortable, fill out the space with our true selves. 

Owl and Cat in Love, "Dancing Under the Moon" (final image, page 29)

"Dancing Under the Moon"
Woodcut (reduction)
11.25" x 11.75" (image)15" x 16" (paper)
Oil based inks on Sulphite Block Printing Paper 
Limited edition of 3

After their wedding, Owl and Cat dance on the beach under the moon. I have to wonder just what kind of mincemeat is in that bowl. 

Now that the story is all told (although I do have the cover, which I'll post tomorrow) I'm thinking about the role that color has played throughout this whole journey. It seems the whole story is really about this couple holding on to the primal glue that binds them together as everything else, including their own bodies, constantly shifts in tone, distorts, or dissolves. While the colors and types of setting (field, interior, seas, forest) might drastically change from page to page, the protagonists are always woven into their environment. Here, too, they almost melt into the chaotic sky. They fit in wherever they go and make it seem easy and natural. They succeed in changing together, and that is the key to their Love.

Although I've used the emphasized wood grain in most of the images for this book, this is the only image where I use a knot as part of the composition. Given that they just got married, I know there's a bad pun in there somewhere. 

Owl and Cat in Love, "Wedding" (double page spread pages 27-28)

"Wedding"
Woodcut (reduction)
9.5" x 20" (image)
15" x 24" (paper)
Oil based inks on Sulphite Block Printing Paper 
Limited edition of 3

It isn't so much that the Land Where the Bong Tree Grows is the Galapagos Islands. The Galapagos Islands are more symbolic than that for this retelling of Lear's poem. All of the animals indigenous to the islands and pictured in this wedding's congregation are famous for having undergone an evolutionary transformation that makes them unique from their ancestral cousins on the mainland. So, too, have Owl and Cat undergone a transformation through their union (just imagine the kids!) Also, there aren't any turkeys or piggy wigs found on the Galapagos.  

Owl and Cat in Love, "Welcome" (double page spread pages 25-26)

"Welcome" (parts 1 and 2)
Woodcuts (reduction)
Each is 11.25" x 11.75" (image), 15" x 16" (paper)
Oil based inks on Sulphite Block Printing Paper 
Limited editions of 3 each

The pair who have been spying on Owl and Cat for the past three double-page spreads are finally noticed. They reveal themselves as ambassadors of the island bearing gifts of beaded necklaces which match ones they themselves wear. The message is this: We, the natives of this island, accept and welcome you to our tribe.

Up until this point, Owl and Cat have been a nation of two. Now, they have found a whole new community in which they can redefine themselves as a couple. 

Owl and Cat in Love, "Entering the Forest" (double page spread pages 19-20)

"Entering the Forest"
Woodcut (reduction)
20" x 9.5" (image)
24" x 15" (paper)
Oil based inks on Sulphite Block Printing Paper 
Limited edition of 3

After watching the sunset on the island where they are now stranded, Owl and Cat enter the forest in search of food and find fluttering delicacies. Unbeknownst to them, the natives are still watching... 

"Orwell's Cat"

"Orwell's Cat" 
Woodcut
5.5" x 8" (paper) 4" x 4" (image) 
Artist's Proof 

Someone on Etsy who liked my Cats A-Z prints asked if I'd do a print inspired by a photograph of George Orwell circulating around the Internet with his cat peeking out from behind him (see below). 

The request added: 

"I like the idea that he had a cat who wrote stuff only not as good,obviously." 





I'm all about the anthropomorphism of animals. So I came up with this. I tried to be subtle and put a pencil behind the cat's ear, but that's difficult since cats don't have ears like humans. I like the black and white, but I also did a hand-colored one and I think I like it better. 

"Katt Och Uggla (Cat and Owl)" by Kristina Anshelm

When I was poking around the Internet looking for more information on Eva Stockhaus, I discovered this amazing Swedish printmaker, Kristina Anshelm. (Click here to check out her website.)

Two small hunters have perched side by side. Their claws run parallel to the curve of the branch which supports them. Stripes, dashes, and spots; fur, feathers, and bark - it is a symphony of texture. Moonlight reflects on their patches of white so bright as to obscure the hungers' true forms.

She nods toward him, eyes closed, savoring this moment of togetherness.

He remains wide-eyed and gazing forward, vigilant.

Owl and Cat in Love, "Watching the Sunset..." and "...With Company" (double page spread pages 17-18)

"Watching the Sunset..." and "...With Company"
Woodcuts (reduction)
Each is 11.25" x 11.75" (image), 15" x 16" (paper)
Oil based inks on Subi paper
Limited editions of 3 each

Finally safe on dry land again, Owl and Cat take a moment to enjoy the setting sun. However, this island is already inhabited, and some of the natives are taking a moment to watch them.

Are there any silhouettes you, dear reader, recognize?

Owl and Cat in Love, "Finding the Island" (double page spread pages 15-16)

"Finding the Island"
Woodcut (reduction)
20" x 9.5" (image)
24" x 15" (paper)
Oil based inks on Subi paper
Limited edition of 3

Our protagonists have survived the stormy seas. After having lost their boat (thank goodness Owl can fly), they thankfully discover a welcoming shore, where the bong tree grows... 

I've been keeping to the formula of a four-layers-of-color reduction for this project. But you'll see that here the hues have dramatically warmed. It's not just because of the sunlight at this time of day. Things are (perhaps) looking up for Owl and Cat.

Owl and Cat in Love, "Sailing Away" (double page spread pages 9-10)

"Sailing Away"
Woodcut (reduction)
20" x 9.5" (image)
24" x 15" (paper)
Oil based inks on Subi paper
Limited edition of 2

This is the next in my Owl and Cat in Love project. Here the new lovers sail away in their famous pea-green boat. I imagine them leaving the city for the wilderness. Eventually the wilderness of the island "where the bong tree grows," but first the wilderness of the open seas...

Owl and Cat in Love, "Provisions and Pawn" (double page spread pages 7-8)

"Provision" and "Pawn"
Woodcuts (reduction)
Each is 11.25" x 11.75" (image), 15" x 16" (paper)
Oil based inks on Subi paper
Limited editions of 2 each

Finally finished another double page spread in Owl and Cat In Love. This is of course from the line "They took some honey, and plenty of money" in Lear's original poem. I wanted to give a sense that at this point the owl and cat live in a rather developed world, but they are about to take off on an adventure into a more wild and primitive existence. A little foreshadowing of their future adventures on the sea and in the forest are suggested by the patterns on the arches.

Owl and Cat in Love, "First Date" (double page spread pages 5-6)

"First Date"
Woodcut (reduction)
20" x 9.5" (image)
24" x 15" (paper)
Oil based inks on Subi paper
Limited edition of 4

The holidays are over, it's a new year, and I am definitely back on this Owl and Cat in Love project.

Having met while hunting the same rabbit, the two decide to share dinner. A little foreshadowing of their voyage with the guitar, sea, and green boat, and their future tropical island home with the wallpaper behind them. I designed the composition in a way to echo the dramatic love-at-first-sight gaze from the previous double-page spread, with the double arches on the right side and round window and moon on the left, both of which resemble eyes.

I'm going for a minimal effect with color. I plan to stick with the same limited palette - dominated by orange-brown and ultramarine blue - throughout the book. I'd also like to have some of the wood grain visible in just about every page. I love how both of these techniques can be used to make objects seem ethereal. The wallpaper melting into the blue of the sea, the animals camouflaged against the wood floor.

We shall see what happens on the journey. I always have a plan, but the muse is the boss.

"Junior" by Alexis Mackay

Image posted with the permission of the artist. More of Alexis Mackay's work can be viewed at her blog and Etsy store.

He's a bit prickly. Not quite as dangerous as a porcupine. More like a hedgehog. Prickly, but still cuddly. Cuddly, except when he looks at me like that; hunger tinged with scorn. I can practically hear his stomach rumble. He knows I didn't have anything better to do, yet here he waits in silence. And glares.

"Going Fishing" by Sue Scullard

Image posted with the permission of the artist. More about Sue Scullard and her wood engravings can be viewed at her website here.

Flowers surround the cat. Flowers that grow slowly. Flowers that bend and shiver gently in the wind, and whose subtle fragrance permeates the air all around. The cat is poised on the water's edge, watching. Ready. The water oscillates, but only slightly, from the breeze and some movement below. Movement carefully observed by the cat. Moments pass by at a silent, steady pace. The flowers appear still, but are growing and releasing their lovely scents. Patience is all.

Cats A-Z (Cover)

"Kitty, Cat" 
6" x 8" (paper) 4" x 4" (image) 
Available for purchase here. 

For the cover of my Cats A-Z book I definitely didn't want to have a cute cat. So thinking it through for a while, I came up with this image. The model for the cat peering up from behind the table is my own pet cat Horatio (also known by his nickname "Oshie.") He is named after Hamlet's foil, because Oshie was acquired to be a friend and amusing contrast to my older cat Aubrey. Perhaps the best-known scene in the play Hamlet is when Hamlet picks up the skull of Yorick, and says to Horatio:

Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hathborne me on his back a thousand times; and now, howabhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rims atit. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I knownot how oft. Where be your gibes now? Your gambols? Your songs? Your flashes of merriment,that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock your own grinning? quite chap-fallen? Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, lether paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come; make her laugh at that.