"Colette"

 

"Colette" Woodcut Gamblin ink on white Stonehenge 8" x 12" (block), 10" x 15" (paper) This is yet another print of a friend's dog. In this case a miniature poodle. I got a little obsessed with competing patterns in this one. The metal dog sculpture in the foreground is easier to see and has more personality than the living dog sitting on the chair. Even though I made this for a friend, I think how I feel about life right now seeped into how I put this image together. Chaos and competing interests reign supreme.

"Faolan"

 

"Faolan" 
8" x 10" 
Woodcut with chine-collé
Unique print 

This a commemorative wood block print of a friend's dog that passed away within the last year. I only met this sweet dog once, but really enjoyed his company. He lived with Lucy, who also passed away a few months ago. I managed to snap a good photo of Faolan and used it as a reference for this print. I decided on chine-collé to capture the mottled colors in his fur. 

all his sweet and shaggy life,
always near me, never troubling me,
and asking nothing.

-Pablo Neruda 

"Paco"

 

"Paco" 
8" x 8"
2 layer reduction woodcut with hand coloring 
Unique print 

This a commemorative wood block print of my parents dog Paco. As a puppy, Paco was dumped on a farm. He had Parvovirus and would have died had it not been for the kindness of the couple at Artcroft Creative Center who found him. They gave him to me to give to my parents. Paco passed away last month after a long happy life with doting humans, many walks, runs, swims, road trips and cozy naps. He was sweet and stubborn and oh so shaggy. Paco will be missed by many who loved him.

"Bound for Pennsylvania"

"Bound for Pennsylvania"
5" x 7"
Five-layer reduction wood block print 
Oil-based Gamblin ink on white Stonehenge paper
Edition of 36

This is the print I submitted to Baren Forum for Wood Block Printmaking's Exchange No. 82. The theme for the exchange was "Exodus". About a year ago I adopted an old Redbone Coonhound. He had been found at a shelter in Georgia and would have been euthanized had he not been rescued by an organization that moves abandoned dogs from overpopulated areas to places where they are more likely to be adopted. We picked him out at the shelter in Media, Pennsylvania. He was wearing an aqua bowtie, which I guess had been put on to showcase him as a particularly handsome gentleman. He has turned out to be a very affectionate, friendly, food-driven guy, who even now seems baffled by his new life in the big city. We named him "Mutlu" which is Turkish for "happy". 

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.

"Two By Two"

9" x 12"
Caligo safe wash relief ink on Kozo paper
Edition of 30

I made this print for the Baren Forum for Woodblock Printmaking Exchange #78. I had taken some photos of my Australian Shepherd and Chiweenie dogs hanging out in the hallways and was having trouble deciding which photo to use as a reference for a woodcut. The technique challenge for this exchange was "multipanel", which I took as an opportunity to integrate both photos into a single print.

"Mr. Peabody"

I made this print for the owner of the dog's birthday and also printed an edition of 23 for the Baren Forum for Woodblock Printmaking Exchange #77. The image is 9" x 12", paper is 10" x 15", and it was printed with oil-based Gamlin block printing ink on fawn-colored Stonehenge paper.

High Resolution Image of "Lost Dog"

This is a higher resolution and generally better photo of my print from Big Ink at Fleisher. Click here for more info about that.

"Year of the Dog" Hand Colored

I was going to send out the black and white version of my Year of the Dog cards, but over last weekend I colored one for fun and decided that I had to color them all. Finished and mailed out the last of them tonight.

"Choban" in Color

This is a hand-colored version of the woodcut I made and posted about a few days ago. I actually designed the cut with the intention of adding color. Not sure how I feel about this version. But that's always how I feel after I make a color version of a black and white print.

"Choban"

This is the proof of my print for Baren Forum Exchange #75. It's of our recently adopted dog Choban, hanging out on the couch where he sleeps at night. I've got the run of black and white prints finished, but I really want to hand-color them before I send them out. I'm planning to play around with paints tomorrow to see what I can come up with.

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.

Five different types of dogs (woodcut from 1547)

Small dragons make
Fair stripes, furry gradations, and
Courageous spirals

Sketchbook Sunday: Dog Portraits

These are portraits of the two dogs my family adopted this year. Mary is a chiweenie (chihuahua and dachshund mix) and Choban is an Australian Shepherd. I feel their respective personalities really come through.

Pilgrimage to Dog Mountain

Last week I finally made it to Dog Mountain, the home of artist Stephen Huneck's gallery and Dog Chapel in Saint Johnsbury, Vermont. I have been a great fan of Huneck's colorful woodcuts for years. I first wrote about his work in 2011 on the one-year anniversary of Huneck's passing.

This year was the perfect time for my family to take this trip. For one, we said goodbye to our beloved, 19-year-old cat Aubrey a few months ago, and were able to pay tribute to him at the Dog Chapel. For another thing, we just adopted our first dog - a friendy, spunky Australian Shepherd named Choban.

These are some of the photographs I took while visiting Dog Mountain. I highly recommend the trip for any lovers of dogs, cats, woodcuts, and wood carvings. More information about the place can be found at the website.

"Gus" Revisited for Baren Forum Exchange #67

To start out the new year I've decided to delve into the recent past by finally doing an edition of Gus, a woodcut I created in 2012, but never went beyond proofing. I resurrected this woodcut for two reasons.

First, while setting up my new studio (I moved a month ago) I found this block and liked it much better than when I first carved it. Sometimes I feel overly disappointed in a first proof, especially if I have a specific idea in my head of how I want an image to turn out, and in this case I had. Now that original vision is far enough away that I can enjoy what actually came out of this block.
Incidentally, I also realized that the size of this block was just perfect for Baren exchange #67, which is due February 1st.

My second reason for revisiting Gus is that I'm interested in starting a series called Dogs A-Z, which would be a sequel to my Cats A-Z series. As with the cat alphabet book, this would be a collection of black and white woodcuts. I figured finally giving Gus his own edition would help get me into the headspace. Although honestly, I don't quite yet feel I'm there, and will probably have to get some other ideas out of my system first.

Proof of "Gus"

Image is approximately 6" x 10". I had been wanting to make a print from this beautiful photograph of my friend's dog "Gus" for a while now. But I was having trouble deciding which approach to take. I have been doing my Cats A-Z series in black and white, and also looking at the black and white work of some other wood block printmakers, and decided to use this image of Gus for a study in black and white. I'm very pleased with how the blanket under him is turning out. However, Gus himself still reads as way too flat. I'm also not sure how I feel about the composition - I want more dark on the right side of the image to balance things out. Part of me is wishing I had decided to do a color reduction print from this photo (and perhaps I will do that too if I find the time.) But mainly I'm glad I decided on the black and white exactly because it isn't turning out yet how I'd like, so it's forcing me to work more at it. I'll go back into this block and post another update on it soon. If it turns out I can't save it, at least I will have learned something from it.