Woodblock Index Book Project
I began carving wood blocks for making prints in 1999. I Initially began working with birch plywood and a pile of 12 x 12” wood samples that I found in the street on trash day, but these surfaces proved too hard for me to carve without wrist and elbow damage, so I switched to a Japanese wood called SHINA, which keeps a lot of detail but is easier to carve. I use Japanese carving tools, ranging in size from 1–12 millimeters.
Carved, shellacked and toned woodblock of silkweed pods that was generated by taking actual plant material that was photocopied and transferred to the block to carve and make the image ready to print.
9” x 9”
Over the years when I have had exhibitions, I have often displayed my carved blocks as part of the installation. In 2017 when I had a solo exhibit at Phillips Andover Academy and a wall of blocks was hung as part of the show, I got the idea of having a printed index of the woodblocks so that people could see how the wood translated into print on paper.
In 2018, Haley Coleman from Lesley University was my intern for a semester and together we tackled 20 years of carved wood blocks which have amounted to about 120 images ranging in size from 6 x 8” to 20 x 24”. Hayley printed the blocks as part of her internship, and I revisited and re-carved, or cleaned up many blocks as we worked together.
Designer John Kramer created a book of these woodblock images, which was published in a limited edition of 200 copies in November 2022 and is available to the public at abrazospress.bigcartel.com. The images were photographed by Julia Featheringill. There is a preface by Karen Kunc, Professor Emeritus from the University of Nebraska and a luminary in color wood block printing.
The book was reviewed in the Boston Globe Book Review on December 4, 2022 by Nina McLaughlin.
