This was my first woodcut, made in January or February of
2022, twenty years ago. I recently took about 4 years away from focusing on
printmaking to work on learning cartooning. I am hoping that all that I have
learned through my cartoon study will enrich my printmaking.
The print seen here is my first woodcut (though I had done a
few early attempts at relief printing using a potato). Amy hates it. I can see
why. But I love it because it was the door through which I entered an amazing,
fulfilling world of reduction woodcut printmaking. I had a pine board from a
bizarre attempt to become a carpenter 6 months earlier, and Amy had a few
bottles of fabric paint. The only tool I had to cut with was Amy’s dad’s old
rust X-acto craft set. I manipulated a picture of Amy to high-contrast and
printed it out on our printer, and traced. It would several months before I
began doing prints from my own drawings. But at this moment, when I pulled the
paper off of the block, it was like I was struck by lightning.
This print represents the moment that I found my path.
Now I am back in the studio, ready to get back on that path,
and I invite you to join me in a very special journey.
