Still working, another engraving on Corian

Not too far to walk

I'm into detail nowadays, makes me disciplined and I enjoy the magic of bringing something out of nothing with tiny little marks...LOTS of tiny little marks. Corian is perfect for that.

Since Corian scraps are often colored and sometimes heavily so, I have been using spray gesso (which BTW auto-correct wants to change to "gestapo" LOL). A nice thin layer of gesso and my drawings or transfers go on perfectly. Unfortunately as I engrave, the dark color of the Corian slab comes through but under the magnifying lamp, I can see all the lines like little canyons in the desert.

This particular block is a medium gray so once I inked and cleaned up, the elements show up nicely.

And speaking of desert, here is my latest, I'm on the third proof and still a bit of cleaning up and tidying up to do:

Block, proof 1, just defined the elements

Block, proof 2, light starts to appear

Print proof 3, getting there!
Some details to bring out,
more light in the background,
few areas to "correct"

I was going to call this piece "promised land" but being a realist I understand there is no such thing in life. All we have is our respective journeys and our feet. Once the walk begins, there is no place that is too far to walk if we just have the stubborn inclination to keep walking. The light guides us, surrounded aloft and afoot by prickly, sharp, hard and biting things, we bear all, we move onward to the destination, distant yet attainable and somehow irrelevant. Walking the journey is life, one step at a time. 

"Not too far to walk" is a a song by John Huling, largely unknown master flutist who publishes most inspiring native nature revering Southwest music.

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Celebrating Life! 2014

50 or Better

I am entering a piece I just finished to a show called Celebrating Life! sponsored by the Las Vegas City Council. I will deliver tomorrow but the thing that called my attention to the show was the call for entries where it states "Artists 50 or better are eligible to participate" Do you LOVE that?!
I just had to enter. Hopefully I make it into the show.

After the Fire

Last year we had a horrible fire up at our mountain island, a near 12 thousand foot peak called Mount Charleston. The fire started down in the canyon of the Spring Mountains and lapped up a huge amount of land. The scars are very evident, where it crossed roads, where it jumped fire breaks, where it scorched 50 year old Joshua trees and everything around them. Mountain residents were evacuated and the fire came within a few hundred yards of one of the tiny residential areas.

This year I was driving up the mountain and I decided to take photos of the interesting burned landscape. Then I could come back every year to see nature's progress in reclaiming the mountain. I was surprised by the growing carpet of blue, purple and orange that had already begun to sprout! Between the blackened yucca, new growth afoot and yucca blooms sprouting in some of the trunks. Sprinkles of purple sage and globe mallow everywhere, daisies here and there...new life on the mountain springing up everywhere!

Here is my piece with some details, After the Fire, A New Spring a hand colored woodcut 34 x 26 inches, edition of 25, half on Arches tan and half on BFK light. Both papers color very nicely with watercolor with the Arches being a little richer overall and the BFK light a bit more subtle and delicate. Just got done framing it today.