"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 

"Tigerfly"

Tigerfly
woodcut 5" x 27" (image) 10.5" x 31.5" (paper) 
Water-based inks on Rives BFK
Available for purchase here. 

I finally finished this print for my youngest daughter, Eulabee. The poor girl is going to have "bee" themed stuff probably her whole lifetime, so I hope she likes them. At least the bees aren't central here; they and the fireflies share second fiddle with the Tigerfly, a fantastic creature from my imagination. Coming up with the idea and drawing this was a lot of fun. My favorite aspect of this image is that I can't decide if the Tigerfly is tiny or if the other insects are huge.

"Tiger and Sloth" by Ellen Shipley

Image posted with the permission of the artist. More about Ellen Shipley and her work can be viewed on her blog, Pressing Issues.

It is, rather, the tiger of my dreams, flat and ornamental, yet snickering at me, and I just don't know what's so damn funny. There is something in a way cats recline. That position which is so stately, so cozy, as if the cat is privy to some secret of how the world works. Oh, that snicker, how it taunts me even in my sleep. Especially in my sleep, actually, for my dreams are portals to terrible lands, where giants lurk and days are longer than snakes.

The sloth is who I'd rather be. He has disguised himself in plain view as the tiger's reflection. Eveyone is so distracted by thirst and the tiger's stately posture and pretty swirls that they don't notice the sloth. Quietly he extends his tongue and pulls forward to lick the dew off a saucy leaf.

Addendum: When I contacted Ellen Shipley to get permission to write about and post this image, she added this:

I don't know exactly what you plan to say about the print, but I don't know if you saw in a later post that the woman it was made for died of the Swine flu a short while later. She was a friend and co-worker, and that year's Christmas card had an homage to her:  she is the "Kitty" sleeping on the hearth. 

#17 - 30 Prints in 30 Days (Rainbow Tiger)

"Rainbow Tiger"

Collograph made with foam affixed to cardboard

12" x 9"

Water based ink on orange Subi paper

Edition of 2

Available for purchase here.

Yet another ferocious animal represented as a cute, plush toy. Sewn thread instead of claws. White felt for teeth. Puffy stuffing stands in for powerful muscles, sturdy bones, and blood rushing through veins. This toy, more like a cloud than a tiger. Something of the air, not the jungle, like sunshine, and snowflakes, and rainbows.

"Tiger Eye"

Image is 8" x 5.25", paper is 12.5" x 9.5"

Woodcut (reduction)

Water-based inks on rag paper

Edition of 7

I've wanted to make prints of a tiger for a while and this is my first attempt. Had a piece of wood with a nice knot and grain around it that reminded me a of tiger's eye, so I got to work on this little two layer reduction.

Beautiful camouflage

Black against white

Stripes wriggle

Slither like snakes

Spread out like branches

Then wither away

More to come!