"What Human Is..." by Sada

Image posted with the permission of the artist. More about Sada (Hyun Mi Park) and her expressive, imaginative works can be viewed at her website and Etsy store.

As I look at this image, I can practically feel the chisel against the wood block, carving away all except the contour lines of the universal figure. A woodcut that really looks like a woodcut.

Though seemingly primitive, there is something profoundly artful about how much expressive gesture is captured by so few lines. The figure almost seems to smile, head cocked coyly and he/she gazes toward the viewer. The arm and fingers on one side seem to wiggle while the other pulls down, fingers flared out. One hip juts out, putting all weight on the other side. The stem or string which connects the pair of leaves to what seems to be an opening in the figure's chest bows slightly, giving just enough slack to imply buoyancy.

The use of offset, earthy-red color (it almost seems a puddle of blood around the opening of the chest) and expressive mark-making remind me a bit of the woodcuts of German expressionist Ernst Kirchner.

The image is playful and strange. It is the sort of image that grabs my attention right away, then leaves me to ponder the unfinished sentence that is its title. The sort of image that causes me to notice being in my own skin and feel sometimes a comforting, and sometimes disconcerting connection to the larger human family, and the even larger family of all living things. It is the same response I have to many works of art found in museums of archeology and anthropology, created by a variety of indigenous peoples from many time and places around the world. In the moments I look at this image, I am fully aware of being both large and small.

#30 - 30 Prints in 30 Days (Self Portrait with Sasquatch)

"Self Portrait With Sasquatch"

Woodcut reduction in 4 layers

Water based ink on Rives BFK

8" x 12" (image) 11" x 15" (paper)

Artist's Proof

The last print finished, with four hours to spare. This month has been intense (as I have a full time day job, a young daughter, and another baby on the way), though deeply fulfilling. Many long nights were spent in the studio, where I might otherwise have been cuddling on the couch with a cat watching movies, or soaking in the tub while reading a good book. I feel this image captures the exhilaration of this month of fast-paced, daily art-making. One of my cats, Sasquatch, serves as a totem. He and the woman both recline in their red spaces, and glance toward each other as if to say, "Oh, you, too?" We're so different, so distinctly separate from one another, and yet doing the same thing in the same shade of hot pink.

I've reached the end of this journey, and I'm ready to take a long, hot bath.

"Wood Nymph"

Wood Nymph

Woodcut (5 color reduction)

5" x 8"(image) 7.5" x 11.5" (paper)

Can be purchased on Etsy here.

This is another drawing done at the Allens Lane Art Center figure drawing sessions. (First and third Tuesdays, more info here.) I had this piece of scrap wood sitting around so I took it with me and drew directly on the block. The block itself was sort of a mess. It had a tough knot and another area of tight, hard-to-carve grain, as well as an area with a smattering of nicks. After putting the drawing on the surface I decided to go with the flaws by emphasizing them and carving the figure in a way that she seems somewhat embedded in the block. I like the way the curved lines of grain echo the curves of her figure and the darkest area to the left of her shoulder imitates the shadows and folds in her body. The other dark area that runs vertical behind her arches neatly around her head as if she has recently emerged from some mysterious crevice beyond the curtain of woodgrain. At first I worried a little about the one hand that I cropped right out of the composition, but as I worked, that area of the grain eroded more easily under the wire brush, and so in the final product the woman's forearm is distinctly translucent as if she is reaching behind the curtain.

One thing I find that I enjoy about woodcuts that emphasize the grain is that they capture some of the beauty of the block itself. The drawing on the block, both before and after it is carved, is a uniquely beautiful image. But the print on the paper is the finished work. Whenever the grain of the block is brought out in the image it gives it an added sense of depth. Of course it also visually connects the onlooker to the artist's process, but it really works best when the grain works in harmony with the imagery, opposed to being just another texture present. Perhaps the greatest challenge I feel in including the woodgrain is the insecurity I feel when my drawings are integrated with such subtle, natural beauty. It puts on a lot of pressure to make a truly beautiful drawing.

Figure Study 12/8/10

Image measures approximately 4" x 11"

Water-based inks on Rives BFK

Monotype and woodcut

I've been going to figure drawing sessions at Allens Lane Art Center for over a year now and this is a little study developed from one of this week's drawings. I wanted to play around with different layers of monotyped color under the carved block layer. Out of the batch this was the best final product. The screaming yellow background and jagged blue line-work suggest turmoil. These combined with the naked body, the cropped out face, and the bend of the body forward with arms behind the back create a sense of anxiety, possibly violence. It takes a pretty typical model pose for a run-of-the-mill figure drawing session to another level of suggested narrative and emotional tension. Perhaps I was inspired by all the model's tatoos and piercings (in addition to her wonderfully dynamic poses.)