Winter Walk

Quality time in the woods today.

:: little feet in the ice ::

:: yellow jelly fungi ::

 :: little fans ::

 :: i see you deer ::

:: snow ::

:: who is this? :: 

:: turkey tracks ::

:: beautiful shelf mushroom ::

Whoa.

I have a lot of books on certain subjects.

Guests and Projects

I had a guest at the studio last week, the great Kevin Mercer of Large Mammal fame. He brought some gifts, which was very much appreciated and a super cool thing to do. We had a great talk about printmaking and art making in general and even did a little bit of collaborating, which there will be more info about soon. But for now, I just wanted to say...Thank you, Kevin, that was really fun.

 :: gifts! ::

 I also had the chance last week to make a couple of prints.

One for my own amusement,

 :: TVC15 ::

And one as part of a larger body of work. This one is titled Scythian. Letterpress on cotton paper.

 :: Scythian ::

I've also been digging around into my old work because I'm starting a project that will incorporate old writings, and I found some work from 2004. I was so happy to see this work again and to see how much I've changed and yet there is a strong narrative that runs through it all.

:: Untitled, photographic work from 2004 ::

Neighbors and Books

I went to Delaware yesterday to drop off some work for a show, "Neighbors" at Project Space.

Wilmington, DE. This group show is an eclectic group of artists, who have all been neighbors at one time or another. I feel very lucky to be part of this show, which includes the work of Catherine Maloney, Ruth Ansel, and Sutton Hays.

If you are in the neighborhood, the opening details are:

Neighbors

Project Space

2003 West 17th Street

Wilmington, DE 19806

Friday, February 1st 5pm to 8pm

Should be a great show.

While I was there, I went to the thrift store and found this treasure. 

:: mushrooms and magic, yes please ::

 :: title page with sweet little mushroom drawings ::

:: I see russulas, morels, boletes, and more! ::

I also went to my parent's house and dug out a few of my own children's books, I'll be posting more of them later. This one is Rocks and Gems. I remember looking at it many times.

 :: I love that little earth core slice ::

 :: rocks and gems ::

Nested Egyptian Punch-Out Mummy Cases

This book is making my heart happy...

I also saw two mushrooms on the way to work today. In January. Auspicious.

:: earth stars ::

The Iceland Book

Making progress on the design for my new book. I've spent the last month doing sketches of sorts. Little pictographic drawings, imaginary maps, experimental prints, etc. to get a feel for what I want the look and feel of the book to be. It's getting there.

The inspiration for the book is Iceland. New worlds. Far travel. That's all I'll say for now.

 :: drawings ::

This will be the first time I've digitally designed a book before letterpress printing it. The editions I've made before this have been handset and the imagery hand-carved or manually produced some other way. This book will include many drawings, but I wanted to incorporate photo imagery and to use a typeface that is not available in metal. So InDesign it is.

:: first draft - computer printout ::

I finished my first draft and printed it on a laserjet to get a feel for the scale. Boy does it look different than on screen! 

Everything needs tweaking...

:: first draft - computer print out ::

I've wanted to go to north for years, since I read Bulfinch's Mythology and of The Hyperborea, the land beyond the Northern Wind. I know this book will bring me there, in some way, shape, or form.  

:: Islande ::

Developing

Book ideas developing... Pictograms, history, archaeology, botany, arctic landscapes, the colors of the earth and sky. 

:: color experiments for the (as yet untitled) book ::

:: type set for small fires no. 2 ::

:: small fires no. 2 ::

This print is available on my website.