Terrarium (This World, It Doesn't Belong To Me.)

Mountains, 2013, ink on paper, 13 x 11

I made this drawing when I went to Iceland in 2013. I am interested in the relationship between drawing and print. Of course, when I am drawing, I am working much more spontaneously. I generate images in response to the things I see. I work quickly, generating lots of work, most of which isn't particularly resolved. But out of the work, there are small moments or lovely images or surprising seeds of ideas that lead into ideas for prints.

When I work with wood, I carve and print reductively.

Instructions reductive printing:
1) Carve away everything that is to stay the white of the paper.
2) Print your first/lightest color (let's pretend it is yellow).
3) Carve away everything that is to stay the lightest color (ex: everything that is to stay yellow).
4) Print your second/medium color (let's pretend it is green).
5) Carve away everything that is to stay the medium color (green).
6) Continue in this way, each time progressively working from light to dark and from large shapes to fine detail.
7) In the end you have very little block left. This also means you can never go back and reprint.

Reduction printing, it's a commitment. You can never go back.

I made a print based on the drawing of the mountains in Iceland. 

Terrarium (This World It Doesn't Belong To Me.), 2014, woodblock, 14 x 11

I worked with wood, reductively, printing in an edition of 40. I used three blocks, carving and printing 36 layers to develop the image for this print. When I started, I didn't really know how many impressions I was going to have to make in order for it to "be finished". The process had the push and pull that I feel when I am drawing: I work and develop and regret and re-fix and invent until finally it is finished.

To record the progression, I scanned (most of) the layers, each time I pulled an impression. The result, this silly little movie. On Friday, December 6th, this print is available for sale at The Print Center Annual Auction.