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| Preview of the book cover! |
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| My studio is a mail room! Stacks of prints, rejects toward the back, set ready to roll on the right. |
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| Tape gun (doesn't everybody have one?), scale, tubes... |
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| Ready to fly to faraway lands! |
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| Am I the only one that really enjoys all those print edges hanging together? Hmmmm... |
Progress comes to those who work and work and work and work. Here is a pic of three full racks of prints, labor of love for all my dear fellow fantastic gardeners. |
| Block "locked" side to side and end to end |
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| Shelf support keeps end piece flush to end of block, strip with peg keeps the runners flush to sides of block |
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| Melissa Read-Devine - Sydney AUSTRALIA http://www.readdevine.com "Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree", a well known nursery song sung by Australian children. This one is typical, sitting patiently, watching for a tasty snack to slither or crawl his way. Watch out if you are having a BBQ in your garden - these guys are notorious sausage thieves! |
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| Maria Arango Diener - Las Vegas, Nevada USA http://1000woodcuts.com "Cricket and the Two-Tailed Lizard" Cricket was a feral rescue who loved playing in the garden, much to the chagrin of lizards and birds, mostly. We named her after her favorite prey, crickets, which she chased under the hollyhocks. But she also often brought us lizard tails...still twitching after being torn from their rightful (annoyed, surely!) owners. Cricket (1997-2013) is now a very happy inhabitant of the Fantastic Garden and has a best friend, a two-tailed lizard. I imagine the ongoing game goes something like this: Cricket chases lizard, lizard sheds one tail and escapes with the other one intact, everyone happy. Lizard grows tail back. Next game, Cricket chases lizard... |
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| Amanda Gordon-Miller - Baltimore, Maryland USA Poppies for the garden! |
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| Sarah Hope Parmeter - Santa Cruz, California USA |
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| Wendy Shaft - Williamston, Michigan USA http://wendyshaft.blogspot.com A collaborative project, like this, reminds me that I am not alone as a relief printmaker. This is second project with Maria and what a glorious experience to see the final art. |
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| Mary Weimer Green - Avon Lake, Ohio USA |
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| AEleen Frisch - Wallingford, Connecticut USA All gardens should include a small putting green, a rabbit hole, a black hole, a ?????. |
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| Ralph Heather - Ontario CANADA http://www.ralphheather.com The journey a Black Swallowtail butterfly takes through it's life stages is always magical. This Black Swallowtail caterpillar showed up in my backyard on a patch of parsley and was an amazing bright green and black. I'm so thankful that there is a ban on pesticides here so we can enjoy the return of butterflies, hummingbirds and so much more. Ralph is a visual artist focused on original printmaking using the traditional techniques of hand-cut wood blocks or etching. His art is hand-drawn, hand-cut and hand-printed in limited editions. In his work he searches for life’s connections that seemingly go unnoticed, often finding his inspiration locally. |
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| Kathe Welch - Oakland, California USA |
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| Gilda Machado-Zimmerling - Templeton, California USA I decided to add a couple of owls to this garden to watch over all the beautiful creatures. They are known for may things amount them is their wisdom and their quality as protectors. |
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| Tracing of the missing block, I just slip the paper under the block and draw the outline |
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| After cutting out my tracing, I placed on a block of cherry ply and draw the outline. The thickness gauge made certain that the blocks were same width. |
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| After clamping the block to my cutting bench, I saber saw the shape. |
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| Perfect fit! Now design and carve, piece of cake! |
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| Ellen Shipley - Santa Clarita, California USA http://pressing-issues.blogspot.com Every garden has its weeds, hardy less-than-appreciated plants bent on staking out their own little corner of the world. My dandelion lady is having a "Bad Hair Day." Haven't we all? ;-] |
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| Carol Myers - Watervliet, Michigan USA http://carollmyers.com http://www.facebook.com/Carol.L.Myers.Art This fairy sculpture that is in my real and fantasy garden is especially meaningful, as it is the same fairy that my 27 year old daughter Lizzie had tattooed on her back. 6 weeks after she was married in 2012 she became ill with autoimmune liver failure, and after five months of critical illness and hopes of a liver transplant she succumbed to complications. I can still hear her musical laughter and see her delight in butterflies as she becomes a part of this fantastical garden. |
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| Mark Vosmeier - Fort Wayne, Indiana USA It's Harvest Time in the Fantastic Garden! There is a bumper crop in the garden, and Mr. Scarcrow decides to share some corn with two of his former nemeses., With a sound so reminsicent of those old cartoon magpies, "Heckle and Jeckle," the following conversation is overheard: First Crow: "I say, ol' chum, isn't this corn simply scrumptious?" Second crow: "Indubitably, ol' bean, most indubitably!" Both crows and Mr. Scarecrow (altogether): Ahh hahahahahahaha! |
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| Dorothy Schultz - Calgary, Alberta CANADA Bulrushes are a favourite image and I thought their odd shape and fuzziness fit well in our fantastic garden. Loved participating in this project! |
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| Carol Hetherington - Canberra, Australian Capital Territory AUSTRALIA It’s nerve-wracking, isn’t it, when you get that little piece of cherry – you have only one chance to cut a design; there’s no starting over if it doesn’t work. That’s my dilemma each time I’ve received that little block from Maria. I get very enthusiastic and put together a wish list of possible designs. I’m a novice woodcut printmaker so my confidence slowly ebbs as I discard one design after another as being beyond my capabilities. In the end I decided on the white Warratah (the gorgeous red Warratah is the floral emblem of New South Wales). My initial carving looked cleanly cut and I was happy with it but then I read Maria’s comment that we should carve deep as some plates had to be re-carved last time because the carving was too shallow. My block doesn’t look so neat and cleanly cut any more but I hope it prints OK. My inspiration for this subject stems from being a long admirer of (Australian) Cressida Campbell’s beautiful White Warratah (and all her woodcuts). |
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| Linda Beeman - Owosso, Michigan USA http://www.lindajbeeman.com My biggest fear is losing my eyesight. Legally blind without my glasses, I sometimes need help FINDING my glasses if I set them down not in their usual place. Losing them...well, I would have to just sit down and not move. What would happen if I drank the 'shrink potion' like Alice did? My glasses would hardly fit me any more and I'd have to leave them behind. What would I be able to see in that world? Could I find my way? Would I be absorbed into the textures and colors? Scary thoughts. Intriguing thought for an artist. |
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| Barbara Mason - Aloha, Oregon USA http://www.barbara-mason.com This cherry wood was darn hard to carve...my lines are wider than I would like....it was odd carving away the lines and leaving the body of the image...more things to learn. Maybe if I live to be 150 or so I will have it down. |
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| John Furr - Pickering, Ontario CANADA |
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| Lynda Furr - Pickering, Ontario CANADA |
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| Diana Hartley - Phoenix Arizona USA http://www.dianahartley.com Welcome to Arizona where Summer spends the winter and Hell spends the summer.Every garden needs a little sun and we have plenty to spare. |
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| Simona Hernandez - Sacramento, California USA http://www.simonasfinearts.com Happy garden surprises…a lizard discovered by excited children and last year’s squash seeds taking root this year! My garden is your garden. |
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| Allan Greenier - New Haven, Connecticut USA |
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| Bee Shay - Nantucket, Massachusetts USA |
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| Sarah Wojciechowski - North Royalton, Ohio USA For my puzzle piece I decided to portray a lotus blossom. The lotus flower represents fortune, purity, and hard work. It grows in muddy water, and it is this environment that gives forth the flower’s first and most literal meaning: rising and blooming above the murk.The second meaning, which is related to the first is purification. It resembles the purifying of the spirit which is born into murkiness. The third meaning refers to faithfulness. Those who are working to rise above the muddy waters. |
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| Sarah Cvilicek - Reno, Nevada USA When I think of a fantastic garden I think of all of the possibilities and who is living there! A whole world is there and magic happens. So for me I see little houses for fairies and gnomes! It is my hope that a gnome takes up residence in my toadstool house! Happy Magic in this amazing garden! |
