"Tiger Mandala" (Year of the Tiger 2022)

 

My Year of the Tiger print for a card exchange with Baren Forum. This is a hand-colored linocut printed on white Stonehenge. 

I've done a few hand-colored mandalas in the same style as this before. It's simply the same image rotated and repeated 4 times. The difference with this one is that this whole image is a single carved block. 

Originally I was going to do something simpler. I wanted to do a tiger chasing it's own tail. But the more I fiddled around with ideas, the more I just wanted to make another elaborate mandala. It's much more time consuming, especially when I color them, but so worth the final product. 

This is my 5th year participating in  New Year's Exchanges with the Baren Forum for Woodblock Printmaking. Here are my prints from previous years' trades: 

Year of the Ox, 2021 
Year of the Rat, 2020
Year of the Pig, 2019 
Year of the Dog. 2018 

Pollinators Gallery

 Here are all the linocuts hand-colored with watercolors I created for the Pollinators 2020 Calendar I've just published. 

Thanks to everyone who purchased the calendar and original artwork through the Indiegogo Campaign! I raised $1310, 109% of the set goal. Without your support this calendar couldn't have been published. 

"Wasp and Tulip Tree Flower"

"Mosquito and Bog Orchid"

"Bluebottle Fly and Skunk Cabbage"

"Hummingbird and Cardinal Flower"

“Gerbil and Hedgehog Lily”

"Nectar Bat and Agave"

"Painted Lady and Aster"

"Human Hand and Vanilla Blossom"

"Bumble Bee and Sunflower"

“Gecko and Metrosideros”

"Monkey Beetle and Ice Plant"

"Honey Bee and Clematis"

"Bee and Flower"

"Bee and Flower"
10" x 10"
Oil-based ink on Mulberry paper

This is the print I submitted to Baren Forum for Wood Block Printmaking's Exchange No. 80. The theme for the exchange was "Unity".

"Fireflies" (Paper Lantern)

8" x 8" x 8" paper lantern with linoleum cut printing on Japanese rice paper with an electric candle inside.

Here is the my first paper lantern all finished. The posted about making the linocut print for it here, and I also did a version of it as a hand-colored mandala, posted here.

This piece will be in the Waiting In Hades exhibition at the University City Arts League. The opening is February 8 from 6-8pm.

Hand-colored Version of "Fireflies"

Linocut, hand-colored with watercolors
Printed with oil-based ink on 120 lb Arches 9" x 9" (image)

After making this black and white print for a paper lantern I'm working on, I decided there also needed to be a hand-colored version. 

Inspired by Topographical Maps

This is my fourth year teaching 3rd-6th graders at the Community Art Center's Summer Spree camp. This year's theme is "Earth Forms", so this week after having my 4th graders complete a collograph printmaking series, we took their "mandala" collographs, some construction paper, and turned them into collages inspired by topographical maps.

#12 - 30 Prints in 30 Days (Hippo Mandala)

"Hippo Mandala"

Collograph with foam pieces and then linocut stamping

17.5" x 18.5"

Water based ink on Kozo paper

Edition of 2

Available for purchase here.

Walking around in the heat, it is so nice to know the cool relief of the river is only a stone's throw away. Minutes from now, sink, and dive, and splash! Wet, wet, glorious wet. Depths of liquid that take away the immense weight of legs like trunks of trees, tremendous belly, and massive head. This flowing space in the landscape that transforms the lumbering beast into a graceful ballerina.

#10 - 30 Prints in 30 Days (Water Mandala)

"Water Mandala"

Collograph with linocut stamping

Water based inks on blue Subi paper

9" x 9"

This is the first print in this month-long project that I'm not putting up for sale. Even at a low price, the craft is just not up to par. I like the concept of the print, but it just wasn't something I could do in a day, certainly not a day where I was taking care of kids for 12 hours! One of the most difficult aspects of making one whole print in a single day is coming up with ideas that are small and simple enough to do them justice in such a limited amount of time. As a work-from-home mother, I am greatly inspired by artist Nikki McClure. I discovered her book Awake to Nap in a local book store. It features a series of stunning yet simple cut paper pieces she did in her spare time while pregnant and when her child was first born. She would create them in the little pockets of time in between all her other responsibilities, such as when the baby was napping. Each image illustrates a letter of the alphabet, but book ends long before "Z" because McClure's life and time no longer accommodated the project. In this way, the book becomes quite personal and honest.

I need to think simpler. I'm interested in making some mandalas, but I need to hone on a more specific subject that will lend itself to a clean and complete execution. That said, I'm glad I made this print. As I said, I like the concept. I just need to take at least a couple weeks to work on it and enlarge the scale to do it properly.