Dazzling Dhalias

"Dazzling Dhalias" 
9" x 14" 
White line woodcut (Provincetown style) 

I made this to enter in a poster contest for the 15th Annual Dazzling Dahlia Festival at The Bascom: A Center for the Visual Arts. The winner of that contest ended up being Shannon Woodford. I haven't seen her winning painting yet, but I can't wait since I checked out her work on her website and her paintings of flowers are strikingly beautiful. 

Even though I didn't win, I enjoyed having the opportunity to make a white line woodcut of flowers that have natural gradations of bright colors. Since I don't have a lot of free time for lengthy art making processes like white line woodcuts, I have to find excuses to make the time to do them. The wooden bridge in the background in a landmark at The Bascom. 

Naked Selfies No. 13-20

 These are the latest "Naked Selfies", numbers 13-20. They are all white line woodcuts printed from blocks that are approximately 3 x 4 inches in size. Read the post that has my artist statement regarding this ongoing series here.

"Naked Selfie No. 12"

3.75" x 4" (block)
White line woodcut
Watercolors on Arches

The latest in the "Naked Selfie" series. I was just tickled when I found the photo of this guy casually waving to the camera in his naked selfie. Check out all of them on this Pinterest album.

Also, I've finally written an artist statement about the Naked Selfie series that I think rightly suits it! Here it is: 

My latest work – a series of “Naked Selfies” of others - explores the translation of visual information from photographs to woodcuts. At the start of this process are people standing naked in front of a mirror, usually in their own bathroom, cell phone in hand, posing in a manner they presumably feel best represents how they wish to be seen. Or maybe they simply want to document the honest appearance of their body at this moment in time. They snap a photo, and at some point the image ends up on the Internet. Maybe the person who took the photograph posted it to an amateur photography or pornography site, or maybe a mistake was made, or someone they sent it to betrayed a trust. One way or another, the image appears on Google searches, which is how I find it.  

At this point in the process there is how I subjectively view the original naked selfie, which is different from the perhaps millions of others who have also seen it. The proliferation of naked selfies on the Internet is simultaneously shocking and banal, depending on who is doing the Google search. My subjective perspective influences how I re-create the image as a white line woodcut. I drop the rectangular border, background, and focus on the isolated figure. Crisp, white lines combined with airy gradations and woodgrain textures emphasize the shape and volume of the body in a way that is more aesthetic than lascivious. I work on small blocks because I want viewers to have an intimate experience with the physical work. Working small scale in woodcut also renders faces abstract enough to give the subjects anonymity. 

At the end of this process there is the print I made as it is received by an audience. The translation into woodcuts recontextualizes this photographic imagery and thereby invite reactions and associations that greatly differ from those typically evoked by the original images. Perhaps some of these woodcuts will be seen by the people who took the original photographs. If so, I wonder, would they recognize themselves?  

"Naked Selfie No. 11"

4" x 4" (block)
White line woodcut
Watercolors on Arches

The latest in the "Naked Selfie" series. Check out all of them on this Pinterest album.

"Naked Selfie No. 10"

Here's the last of 4 new woodcuts in this new series. All of the prints from this series can be viewed in this Pinterest album. Read more about the series in this initial blog post. 

"Naked Selfie No. 9"

Here's the third of 4 new woodcuts in that series. All of the prints from this series can be viewed in this Pinterest album. Read more about the series in this initial blog post. 

"Naked Selfie No. 8"

Here's the second of 4 new woodcuts in that series. All of the prints from this series can be viewed in this Pinterest album. Read more about the series in this initial blog post. 

"Naked Selfie No. 7"

It's a New Year! That means back to work - hooray! Now that the holiday season, with all its obligations and distractions is over, I'm throwing myself back into my studio work with serious energy and enthusiasm. 

I've been wanting to get back to the Naked Selfies series that I started in 2017 for a while, and last month I finally found the motivation. Here's the first of 4 new woodcuts in that series.

All of the prints from this series can be viewed in this Pinterest album. Read more about the series in this initial blog post.

And Happy New Year! 

White Line Scratchboard Prints with Kids

I've continued to experiment with different ways introducing students to white line woodcuts. Oftentimes I work with kids that are too young to carve wood or I teach workshops where we don't have the time to do traditional white line woodcuts. This is one fun, quick, and inexpensive alternative. We used Scratch Art Scratchfoam cut into circles. The kids drew lines in with pencils, which pushing the foam down. Then we taped one side of the circle to the paper for registration and began print section by section using Mr. Sketch markers. The markers produced surprisingly vivid color on smooth, white Bristol paper.

"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 

Naked In New Hope 2017

September 9 through October 28 six of my white line woodcuts of nudes (including three from the Naked Selfies series) will be exhibited at Sidetracks Gallery in the group exhibition Naked in New Hope. This will be the 11th year of an annual special exhibition, and my 4th year as a participating artist. The opening reception is September 9 from 6-9PM, always well-attended, and lots of diverse work from mostly local artists will be featured. I encourage anyone who can to attend!

"Naked Selfie No. 6"

This is the sixth and final new print for a series based on nude selfies I've found while surfing the Web. Read more about the series in this initial post.

"Naked Selfie No. 5"

This is the fifth of six new prints for a series based on nude selfies I've found while surfing the Web. Read more about the series in this initial post.

"Naked Selfie No. 4"

This is the fourth of six new prints for a series based on nude selfies I've found while surfing the Web. Read more about the series in this initial post.

"Naked Selfie No. 3"

This is the third of six new prints for a series based on nude selfies I've found while surfing the Web. Read more about the series in this initial post.

"Naked Selfie No. 2"

This is the second of six new prints for a series based on nude selfies I've found while surfing the Web. Read more about the series in this initial post.

"Naked Selfie No. 1"

This is a new series of Nude Selfies I've been working on, stemming from the small white line woodcut male nudes I did in 2015. I loved describing the figure through the subtle variations in textures and values, but for a long time wasn't sure where to take it in terms of imagery and ideas.

While surfing Google images without filters I inevitably come across naked selfies of complete strangers. Much is discussed and written about how easy access to digital cameras and Internet has blurred lines between the private and public. What we expect to be only shared in intimate settings is instead casually and indiscriminately disseminated around the globe. The completely ordinary naked bodies of specific individuals are now subject to all manner of comment and objectifying scrutiny. Many might say these people have invited scrutiny and crass comments; after all, they are holding the phone, snapping the image. But does that really get everyone else off the hook for any and all of our responses?

With this series I aim to return some of the dignity to these individuals. I don't know who any of them are in real life. I picked out selfies I found particularly interesting or lovely mainly for their compositional lines and shapes. I eliminated background distractions to emphasize what was always intended to be the subject: the figure. My medium of choice is white line woodcuts because the crisp, white lines combined with soft and airy gradations emphasize the shape and volume of the body. I worked on small blocks - no larger than 4" x 4", because I wanted viewers to have an intimate experience akin to perusing family photographs. Also, working at this small size in this medium renders the faces abstract enough to retain anonymity.

Dancing in the Garden: Autumn Glow

18" x 11" (block)
22" x 15" (paper)

This is the last work of art for Dancing in the Garden! I have been working for so many hours, so many days in a row during this residency that I feel like I can't even see straight anymore. So I don't know how I feel about this yet, but I suspect I like it. 

Dancing in the Garden: Roly Polies

18" x 11" (block)
22" x 15" (paper)

The title for this one is inspired by the pill bugs that kids love to catch and that curl up into little balls when they are frightened.

Dancing in the Garden: Fourth Duet

White line woodcut (unique print)
Watercolors on 140 lb Canson watercolor paper
9" x 12" (image) 11" x 14" (paper)  

My 2 week residency at Soaring Gardens continues! Today I completed the fourth (and final) duet woodcut for the Dancing in the Garden series. The poses were partially inspired by my daughters' creative movement classes, particularly when they try to move like various animals. Here I'm seeing a sloth and a frog just hanging out in the shade.