curly-wurly part 2

This is the mirror image of yesterday's curly-wurly. Now if I put them together I can get these...







So I've come to the end of my first month of block printing every day. Here's what January looked like:


Bring it on February.

curly-wurly

kin

So, the last 5 blocks are the kanji for the 5 elements (water, earth, wood, fire & metal) which, combined with the 12 animal signs, make up the 60 year Chinese Astrology cycle.


I made these blocks to use with my zodiac animal blocks I made in December. Each year is assigned an animal sign as well as an element. My animal is rat and my element is metal, like so...



Prints are available for purchase at my etsy shop.


peace

ka

moku

tsuchi

mizu

IF ... tales & legends

I have two entries for this week's Illustration Friday theme, tales & legends. Above is Sedna, the inuit goddess of the sea. Below, Theseus & the Minotaur. Both are quilted (hand and machine) fabric collages.

der kleine Eisbär

This block was inspired by Knut and Flocke. I can't come anywhere close to that level of cuteness.

seahorse

This one is for Jane, although it's just a regular seahorse, not the fancy one she wants. It's a busy week (deadlines!) so I had to do an easy one. I'll get around to the leafy seadragon eventually. It's only January, after all.

peace

still swimming

This fishy is carved on the other side of yesterday's fishy's eraser. He looks a little like he's smiling.


Here he is with his posse. (These guys were stamped before I carved the gill, so they're not smiling. Maybe they're in a bad mood.)

swimming

I'm back under water...this fish is carved on a teeny, tiny (1.5" x .5") eraser. That's really small. My eyes hurt.


update: A few people requested an image that would put the teeny-ness in perspective, so here it is.

some bright morning

I'm deviating from my underwater blocks just for today. Let me explain. I've been thinking of what to call my next set of Art*o*mat pieces - the blackbirds. I decided on I'll Fly Away, like the hymn, so that's been running through my head for days. This morning I read that Suzanne Pleshette died yesterday. I worked with Ms. Pleshette many years ago on a TV movie. She was a fast talkin', no nonsense dame. I like that. Then there's little Mia, my friend Tracey's baby. I won't go into that - suffice it to say that Mia was a tough little fighter. So the song in my head has seemed quite appropriate to my mood. That's all. Today's block is for people we've lost.

sea lion #2

I think I like the block better than the print...

sea lion

IF ... stitch

I know, it's 10:24 PM Thursday night, but I really didn't want to miss this week's Illustration Friday - stitch.

goldfish

Not a koi today, but I'm still underwater.

even more koi

I was halfway through the second fish before I realized how crooked this block was, so it's a little slanty. Oh well.

son of koi

This is carved on Blick Golden-Cut Linoleum - more difficult to carve than the Speedball Speedy cuts, but easier than traditional lino.

later dudes.

koi

In the spirit of my previous post, here's a koi.

pleuf!

It's a beautiful, snowy day here in the northeast. So, naturally, I'm posting about bathing suits. Say what? Here's the dealio - one of my recent graphic/web design gigs was for pleuf, a new line of beachwear for tweenagers. Check it!

spidery flower

A super simple block today. I have three big deadlines this week and next, so things are likely to be super simple for a few days.

I made a little print using yesterday's block and one of the birdies.




peace out.

radiate

While it might not look like it, this is actually based on a pre-Columbiam terracotta seal of a radiate sun. Bet you didn't expect me to go all pre-Columbian on you.

starstruck, baby

...inspired by the Crevs poster from my last post.

Friday night Crevulation

Googie's. 10:30pm. Be there.

click me

circle line

I got circle blocks, how cool is that?

This is what my shelf of uncarved blocks looks like right now, packed full with 185 blocks. Yikes.


...and on a totally different subject - last night I dreamed I met Barack Obama on a Circle Line Cruise. Interesting.

yes

we can

'til it hits the ground

Okay. This guy is the sixth and final (for now) of my new Art*o*mat birds (although only five are posted here because I did the first one a while ago). As soon as I decide exactly what I'm doing with them, I'll post some pictures.

And here I am...one week into this block-a-day thing, and I've already had three problem days. On each of said problem day, I made a block, hated it and made another. Not a good sign. All three were abstract patterny type blocks which were replaced by figurative blocks. I'm a lot better at figurative than abstract, but I'll keep trying.

thanks y'all.

make me dream of you

sing to me tonight

broken bluesy whisper

Another future Art*o*mat black bird.

slow and softly

This guy is carved on an eraser. I'm planning to use this stamp (with some other black birds) for my next batch of Art*o*mat pieces.

day three

Three down, three hundred and sixty three to go. Today's block is a stylized lotus flower (one of my usual subjects - see the banner above), carved on a 1.5" square Staedtler Mastercarve block.

froggie

Another request - this time a frog for Darby, carved on a Speedy Cut block.

new year

Alright, alright, I'm starting a new project for 2008. Inspired by my friends Michael and Noah, I'm going to do any "every day" thing. So, every day in 2008 I'm going to carve, cut or otherwise create a block, plate, stamp or whatever, which I'll use to make a relief print. Here's my dealio - I'll make and post a print a day, barring technical difficulties (like falling off the grid, in which case I'll still make the prints daily and post them as soon as I get back on the grid). Sometimes they'll be complex and sometimes they'll be super simple, depending on what else is on my agenda for the day, and materials will vary. It happens that 2008 is a leap year, so that's 366 days of block printing. We'll see if I can handle that.

To start it off, here's a cheetah (a special request from Willie).



He's carved on a 4" x 6" piece of Blick Blue Easy-to-Cut linoleum.



rave on cats and happy new year