I have been asked recently what kind of art I make.
When people ask me this, they aren’t asking the medium that I use (which is relief block printing), they are asking what kind of imagery I draw.
Simply put, right now, I draw gears, flowers, and plants.
Yes, that is correct, there is a gear in there.
The usual word that some art critic might use with their wacky vocabulary is “juxtaposition” to describe this, but really, I think of it in a much more simple way – I just combine them together.
I am interested in machines, how they work, how they transmit power from one place to another, and how they can be designed in rather clever ways.
Maybe this is how I ended up as a Mechanical Engineer…
I really like flowers and plants also. I see the lush green of the plants that seem to swirl and unfold out, dotted with bright points of brilliant red, white, yellow, purple, and orange of the flowers.
In a way, things that grow are a bit of the opposite of machines. One is made by nature, organic, smooth, random. The other is made by man, manufactured, rigid, exact.
My art is not a statement about society, or man, or nature, or the environment. It is about myself in one way or another. For some reason, this combination of elements fascinates me.
It is obvious to me to combine these two subjects together.
My hope is that you will find something that you find interestign amongst the images I make. Maybe one of them will jump out to you, and it will make sense to you.
The reason why may not be clear, and it may not be obvious, but in that moment when you see something you like amongst the art I am making, I feel like I have shared a little of myself with you, and you have warmly received it.
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If you haven’t yet heard about the 101 Woodblock Series, it’s time to fix that! I am working on a series of woodblock prints that is a crash course through means and methods of relief printmaking.
At the end of this project, I will have 101 unique pieces of art, each of which has been printed from some combination of wood and linoleum blocks.
I want my crash course to be your benefit, so the results of this project are going to be sold to you for only the amount to cover my shipping costs and the cost of materials.
In other words, dirt cheap original, unique art.
The subject of this series is exactly what I talked abotu above, gears, plants, flowers, plus some good old fashioned design thrown in to hold it all together.
If you have started to think, “yes, that is something I am interested in”, sign up for my newsletter, and you will get updates about the project, first notice when the prints have gone on sale, and behind the scenes looks at the creative process.
Click on “101 Woodblock Series” on the left to sign up for the newsletter.
