The new woodcut, which I think I'm calling "Upstream", is aaaalmost my biggest yet. I have sore hands to prove it.
My Halloween costume was made out of 3/4" foam, which I painted in a salmon-y fashion. I then made it into a sash with a ribbon.
I'm going to be hard at work producing more woodcuts over the next few months, because I just found out that I'm going to be having a solo show at a gallery here in Anchorage!
I finished these woodcuts in record speed. I have a portfolio review for a solo show today, so I wanted to finish a few more woodcuts to round out my collection.
I like to show both the black and white, and painted versions of the woodcuts because they have totally different feels and appeal to different people.
I wanted to incorporate salmon into a woodcut somehow, and I was really at a loss and couldn't come up with any ideas that I liked. I had only 3 days to begin and complete this woodcut, and I wasted an entire day rummaging through ideas in my head trying to find something I liked. Luckily, the next morning the idea just popped into my head. I love it when my subconscious brain chimes in and solves creative dilemmas.
Yesterday I framed 6 woodcuts to go in a gallery here in Anchorage. I think they look really nice in their new frames. This will be the first time I've shown and attempted to sell any woodcuts, so I'm pretty excited. There were some older ladies at the frame shop who were pretty crazy for my prints, which is exciting because I would certainly not expect them to be my audience.
"Contrast & Compare"
"Wind, Power"
"Cacti, bike, yard"
"Street"
"Products from the Sky"
"Gifts from God"
I just finished some new necklaces for an Anchorage gallery. There will be some funkier, chunkier ones on the way as well!
Today I made a print of my newest woodcut. This one happened much more quickly and with much more planning than usual. I had been visualizing different versions of it for a while, then I made a quick mock-up of sorts in Illustrator, then once I was happy with the composition, away I cut.
I achieved the 2 color effect by cutting my half-finished woodcut with a saber saw to separate the 2 areas. Maybe in the serious printmaking world people might find another way to accomplish both colors in the same print, but since I am pretty handy with a saw, this seemed to be the easiest way.
Here's a photo of the woodcut itself, with both pieces of wood pushed together. When making the prints, I ink the pieces separately, then I pull masking tape tight around the external edge of the rectangle, securing both pieces together and allowing myself to easily make the whole print at once.
I finally got some film developed that contained everything from my trip to China, to the drive to Alaska, to Halibut fishing! This second fishingpole photo is probably my favorite from the whole roll.
I used to "shoot from the hip" way more often and I'm going to try to make it a point to start again. I need to put my collection of weird cameras back to work!
Here we are on a hike to... Crow Pass, maybe? Its always exciting to see a fisheye-enhanced Sara arm.
