"Waterfall" by Viza Arlington

Image posted with the permission of the artist. Here are links to Viza Arlington's blog and Etsy store.

Water like ribbons dispensed for an unfathomably massive gift. Some pulled straight and taut, the rest spilling out in a nervous, jiggly flow. My scalp starts to itch because I'm reminded of hair perfectly parted in the center before being pulled so tight that there is wincing, even a yelp. From there the hair is tied into place with uncomfortable bands from which the rest of the hair is released to make frizzy chaos.There are many shades and hues of blue, and they are all translucent and they all shimmer. The black and grey cliffs and rocks create a stoic frame for the water's insistent movement, just as you are an essential sounding board for my endless grievances.

"Piccadilly" by John Hall Thorpe

Light pollution. Gorgeous boxes of glowing golden-yellow, like fireflies, hovering everywhere. That is the explanation for so few stars. Layers of blue upon blue, but none so deep and dark as black. The light prevents it. And we noisy, sweaty diurnal creatures hustle and bustle about. The hum of engines and countless conversations fills the void left by the stars. We, lovers-of-the-light, scurry around monumental structures. One such monolith is a circular fountain, from the top of which an angel shoots his arrow back into the crowd. It is a futile effort, like grasping for a lost ring in the dark.

"Pioneer Woman"

4 color reduction
8" x 12"(image) 12" x 16" (paper)
Oil-based inks on Kozo paper
Edition of 2
Available for purchase here.


This image was created for the second of several book covers I'm designing for my mother to market her novels for Amazon's Kindle. The novel is an adventurous, historical story about a girl coming of age as her family seeks a new life in the American frontier. I'll post again about it once the cover is finished and the book available online.

"The Sounding Line" by Bridget Mary Henry

Image posted with the permission of the artist. I was quite excited to discover the work of Bridget Mary Henry on Etsy. She is a woodcut printmaker who incorporates much surreal use of color and imagery. Check out her website to see more of her breathtaking and imaginative woodcuts.

Everything starts small. The first step in a marathon. The first cup of flour for a batch of nana's chocolate chip cookies, the smell of which will live in the memory of her grandchildren for a lifetime. Tiny buds on an otherwise naked magnolia tree that no one seems to notice, and before we know it, its maternal branches are covered in full, thick blooms.

She has cast herself down into the murky depths in the name of information gathering. Science! Progress! It is a pretty sacrifice, and there will be magnolias at her funeral.

"Tug of War" by Ethel Spowers

Two in the center pitted against each other yet joined by the tight grip of hands, their arms stretched like a slingshot. Behind each of these foes is a line of fellow warriors, arms all around waists, heels dug into the ground and pull, pull, pull! Nonparticipants kick and hoot from the sidelines. They think they want a resolution to all this tension. In the heat of battle they long for relief and don't consider casualties. They fail to appreciate the exquisite calm that results from balance.

"Jenny and Eleanor Take A Tumble"

8" x 12" (image)
5 layer reduction woodcut
Available for purchase here.

This is my second stab at this image. The first was in my opinion a dreadful failure.This is better, but I still have so much farther to go.

Everything is so pretty on the outside, like a bright, pastel Easter egg shell around a spoiled interior.These two sunshine gals just didn't know what they were getting into. They thought they could ride a creamsicle steed to a better world. Now the memory of their dusty life on the shelf fades away as they tumble into the purple chiffon abyss.

"The Flood"

Woodcut (reduction)
11" x 16"(image) 12.5" x 18.5" (paper)
Watercolors and waterbased printmaking inks on heavy Arches paper
Available for purchase here. 

This was a commission for some friends, with which I had a great deal of creative freedom. I played around a lot with some new materials (watercolors applied with brushes instead of only block printing inks applied with brayers) and used the highly emphasized wood grain in a new way. I am quite pleased with both the process and the final products. I did a total of four unique versions of the image from the block. This was my second favorite version, but it looks the best in digital reproduction, so I decided to use it instead of my favorite one for this blog post.

I thought I'd write something deeply poetic about this print on this blog post as I often do, but I just can't. The print itself is just so fantastically bizarre and colorful that I don't want to narrow anyone's perceptions with my own ideas about the meaning and narrative. Hell, I don't even want to narrow my own by committing the ideas that happen to be passing through my head right now to paper. Er, screen. I'll just say I'm really glad I made this. I love my babies and cats and toy prints, but I needed to do something more ambitious and, well, weird. I hope this will lead to other interesting avenues with regards to both subject matter and technique. We shall see...