My Award-losing Woodcut

One of my goals in life is to win the Maine Organic Farmers & Gardeners Association’s (MOFGA)  poster contest for its annual Common Ground Country Fair. The winning artwork not only adorns the fair poster, which is widely displayed throughout New England, but also decorates t-shirts, canvas bags, aprons, etc, and brings the artist $1,000 as well. Achieving this goal may take time. Over the years, I’ve submitted five pieces of art—one pen-and-ink drawing and four woodcuts—to the contest. All to no avail! Here’s a brief history of my saga.

For the 2006 poster contest, I submitted a pen-&-ink drawing, “Twitching Birch Logs.” I thought it was a shoe-in. The price of heating oil was sky high and the thought of cutting and then twitching ones own heating supply home with a team of hard-working horses was not only practical, but oh so romantic!

Twitching Birch Logs

8" X 10" pen and ink

2005

No go! The MOFGA judges discourage artists from using crosshatching as shading: “Very, very fine pen lines, spaced closely together in a crosshatching technique, are not cleanly reproducible on cloth,” they say. Not a good omen for this crosshatcher. I also didn’t know that 2006 was the 30th Anniversary of the Common Ground Country Fair. Here’s the winning poster:

I licked my wounds for two years, and then, after taking a woodcut workshop in the spring of 2008, I submitted two woodcuts for the 2009 poster contest. Again, I thought “Stimulus Package” had it all—both animal and vegetable as well of a foreshadowing of the financial crises to come. I threw in “Kate, a border collie” because each entrant is allowed to submit two pieces of art.

Stimulus Package

12" X 13" woodcut

2008

Kate, a border collie

12" X 6" woodcut

2008

No go again! A quick scan of the posters from past years tells you that they really prefer artwork in living color, not black and white. Here’s the 2009 poster:

I sulked the next year, until I got a call from MOFGA saying that they were dissatisfied with that year’s entries and asking me to resubmit “Kate, a border collie,” which had been, they told me, one of the top five finalists the year before. Aha! So, fueled with artistic enthusiasm, I not only resubmitted “Kate,” but sent “Arnold Schwarzenegger” along as well. Arnold’s person, Deborah Evans of Bagaduce Farm in Brooksville, even promised her friends at MOFGA that, if Arnold’s woodcut won the contest, she’d bring him to the fair for all three days to flex his muscles and press his fleshy snout to flesh.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

10" X 14" woodcut

2008

No go yet again! My friend Holly Meade, a fabulous woodcut artist from the next door town of Sedgwick, won the contest with her rampant rooster. I was happy for her.

This year, undaunted, I carved a multi-block, five-color woodcut—"Kate Strides Again"—and submitted it with high expectations.

Kate Strides Again

10" X 13" woodcut

2010

My rejection letter arrived in the mail yesterday. It’s the same letter I've received three times before. Only the prize winner’s name changes each year. The MOFGA folks have chosen a still life of fresh vegetables and canning jars by Dacia Klinkerch of Raymond, Maine, for the 2011 fair poster. They haven’t posted the winning artwork on their website yet, but I can’t help but feel that the dog lovers at the fair—and how many of those there must be!—will be disappointed.

Woodcut Critters & Bookmarks

Busy, busy, busy! I have an exhibit of seven woodcut critters up at Mainescape in Blue Hill. It's a fabulous garden center that also sells pet products. This winter they built a state-of-the-art greenhouse and now have a lovely corridor between the old and the new building that they will use as an art gallery. My woodcuts are their first show! I carved this woodchuck especially for the gardeners.

Then the Brooksville Farmers' Market started back up yesterday. Check out the beautiful driftwood bookmark rack Tom made for me! It was greatly admired by my fellow vendors. The crafters set up inside our Community Center because it rained yesterday. The farmers were all outside because veggies like the rain! I'll have lots more new stuff to show you soon.

Cat, Pup, & Boot

I haven't been totally twiddling my thumbs, just totally impatient with my slow-speed, dial-up connection to the internet. Here are two new woodcuts, my first in the year 2010. Yikes!

Cat's Paw

7X9 woodcut

2010

What Boot?

9X7 woodcut

2010

Woodcut Wedding Present

Great Blues

13" X 10" woodcut

2009

Kristin & Travis

17 October 2009

Chesapeake, Virginia

I made this woodcut as a wedding present for my nephew Travis and his beautiful bride, Kristin, after I attended their wedding last month. It was a great challenge for me. Kristin and Travis don't have any pets -- yet -- so I couldn't just draw their dog or cat for them. I hadn't met Kristin before the wedding. I knew that I wanted to carve a woodcut for them, and I knew I wanted the subject to be furry or feathery. While I was in Virginia for the wedding, I visited the Virginia Beach Aquarium with my other nephew, Hayden, and his sister, Lexi, and we saw a Great Blue Heron there. I've always wanted to carve one and I've been collecting GBH images for years. That cinched it! I carved this romantic pair on cabinet-grade birch plywood and printed it in blue, water-based ink on handmade sumi paper. Tom matted and framed it. Travis has called to report that it will be a welcome addition to their bare walls! Wew!

Gingersnap Woodblock Print

Gingersnap

7" X 9" woodblock print

2009

It took two blocks of wood and a sore shoulder from carving, but I finally got this cock-eared, wild-eyed, live-wire on paper.

Haflinger Horses, Fjord Ponies, and Organic Farms

Bill's Haflinger
8" X 10" woodcut

2009

Wew! Finally back to wood carving, print making, and blogging. I really got blogged out there for a while. Couldn't write or read a one. I think all my face-to-face time at the farmer's market filled up my quota for personal interactions.

Anyways, this handsome horse is Gus, one of a team of Haflingers from Darthia Farm in Gouldsboro, Maine. Bill and Cynthia Thayer own and run this organic farm, and they do a slew of other creative things as well--theater, music, fiber arts, fiction. Cynthia writes novels (Strong for Potatoes, A Certain Slant of Light, and A Brief Lunacy) in her spare time. I'm taking a fiction-writing workshop from her every Saturday this June.

I also had a drawing on the cover of this summer's Brooksville Breeze, our town newsletter. It shows David's Folly, another organic farm, this one right here in my town.

I've started a pencil sketch of the Norwegian Fjord ponies at Darthia Farm and I'm eager to start inking them in.

My How-To of Woodblock Printing

This blog is dedicated to my mother, who can't imagine what in the world a woodblock print is or how in the heck I make one!

YinYang Piglets

10" X 10" woodblock print

2009

This project began with a photograph I took at the Blue Hill Fair last September—two tiny piglets snoozing in a bed of wood shavings. (I wonder which one of them is named Wilbur!)

The way they cuddled together reminded me of the yin-yang symbol and spawned the idea for this woodblock print.

Yin = the passive, female cosmic element, force, or principle that is opposite but always complementary to yang.

Yang = the active, masculine cosmic principle in Chinese dualistic philosophy.

Typically, I began with a mistake, but I learned a lot from this impetuous first carving.

I liked the black piglet better than the white one—his clean lines, his simplicity, his sharp ears, curly tail, and tensile nose—and I decided that both piglets should be the same—mirror images of each other—one white, the other black. I also decided that the circle should be complete. Thus, the woodblock had to be square. Enter Tom, husband and helpmeet, who cuts all my blocks to size for me on his table saw.

I redrew the images and taped them to my new woodblock. It’s a piece of cabinet-grade, half-inch, birch plywood. Notice that the white piglet is on the right and the black piglet is on the left. When I print them the images will be reversed.

I used carbon paper to transfer the image from the paper to the block and a compass to draw the concentric circles. I outlined the lines on the black piglet, to show me what I had to carve out, and darkened in the lines on the white piglet to show me what I had to carve around.

Here is the set of woodblock carving tools that I use. (I forgot to have Tom photograph the carving process. Next time!)

I began by carving out the background around the piglets.

Then I carved the highlights out of the black piglet. It was much easier to carve out the slivers of white space on the black piglet than it was to carve out around the slivers of black space on the white piglet. In fact, I carved out a few too many black slivers on my little girl. I thought I was quite clever in replacing them with superglue. WRONG! When I printed the woodblock, the superglue cut holes in the paper. I probably should have used a different kind of glue, or been a bit more careful in my carving.

I print my woodblocks on the kitchen table covered with the New York Times. What would we do without either! The first step is to load my brayer (the roller) with ink. The ink comes in a can, smells like shoe polish, and washes off with water. I spread it out on a sheet of glass.




Next I ink the woodblock.

I’m using Japanese mulberry paper and trying ever so carefully to place it just right. I need to work on this skill. My prints usually come out a bit whopper jawed!

I use a baren (a bamboo covered disk from Japan) mainly to stick the paper onto the block.

Then I use my favorite tool—a wooden kitchen spoon!—to press the ink into the paper. The paper is so thin that I can see the ink coming right through it, yet it’s so strong that I can really give it a good rubbing.

Finally, when my arm is ready to fall off, I pull the print off the block.



TA-DA!

I pulled ten prints of my Yin-Yang Piglets yesterday. I’ll be offering them for sale in my PenPets Etsy Shop.

First Woodcut of 2009

Shoat

6" X 8" woodcut
2009

Everyone seems to like pigs, so I've started my woodcarving year with this cheerful face. My carving skills have gotten rusty! It takes a while to wrap my pen-and-ink mind around woodblock carving. Instead of penning in the dark places, I'm carving them out. I will persevere!

I actually have quite a few little pigs in my piggery--both woodcuts and pen-and-ink drawings. Here's the whole cast of characters:

Harley Davidson

5" X 7" pen and ink

2008

Arnold Schwarzenegger

10" X 13" woodcut

2008

Porker

4" X 4" woodcut

2008

What's for Supper?

7" X 5" pen and ink

2007

Puddle Piglets

5" X 7" pen and ink

2007

The Terminator

Arnold Schwarzenegger

10" X 13" woodcut

2008

Here's Arnie! The first of my trio of hogs from Bagaduce Farm. I pulled five prints of him this morning, using my new water-soluble ink from Graphic Chemical & Ink Company in Chicago, a new roll of Japanese mulberry paper, a new German brayer (a roller used to spred the ink on the woodblock), a new Japanese bamboo-covered baren (a disk used to press the paper onto the inked woodblock), and an old sheet of glass that Tom raided from a picture frame to roll the ink out on (instead of a paper plate).

I'm quite pleased with all my new tools, but I still have lots of questions about how to use them. Take the paper, for instance. Should I cut or tear it? Which side of the paper should I print on--the smooth or the rough? How do I center the paper over the woodblock so that the margins are even? I tried a little bit of everything this morning. I ended up folding and then tearing the paper along the edge of a countertop. And I ended up using the rough side more than the smooth side of the paper. I still haven't mastered centering the paper over the woodblock. (You may have noticed that Arnie looks a little cock-eyed.) Perhaps that comes with practice. I'm sure to get that! Martha Stewart and Hillary Clinton await my carving tools, my woodblocks, my ink, and my paper. So, I'll be back!

Three "Little" Pigs!

Saturday morning I visited Bagaduce Farm right here in Brooksville where the Deborah and Spencer Evans raise English Large Black & Tamworth pigs. Deborah sells bacon, ham, sausage, and chops at the Brooksville, Stonington, and Blue Hill Farmers' Markets. These three are her breeding stock. Aren't they a hoot! Martha Stewart (left) and Hillary Clinton (right) are English Large Black sows, famous for their EARS! Arnold Schwazenegger (middle) is a Tamworth/ Landrace boar.

I'm going to carve each one into his/her own 10" X 13" birch plywood slab. A triptych of sorts. Stay tuned for "little" pig #1!

The Good Shepherd

Nickie

12" X 13" woodcut

2006

Those of you who are familiar with my children's book, How to Catch a Lobster, will recognize Nickie -- the salty sea dog who really knows the ropes. Nickie is just getting back to work on the Anne Elizabeth after a long recovery from knee surgery. Captain Ed and his stern woman, Anne, are happy to have her back on board. We hope they're catching lots of lobsters on Penobscot Bay!

Woodcuts and Summer Guests

Incentive Package

12" X 13" woodcut

2008

Although my blog has been quite quiet these last two weeks, I haven't been idle. I've been busy carving ever bigger woodblocks. This donkey is a native of Sirince, Turkey, a tiny farming village in the hills above Ephesus. I'm going to submit him and Kate, the Border Collie, to the Common Ground Fair poster contest. You can read all about the fair on the Maine Farmers and Growers Association website.

I carved my donkey and his dangling carrot during the week my niece Bella was visiting from New Hampshire. Bella, almost 9 years old, keenly observed each step of the process. May be another woodblock artist in the making! She and I also read a book aloud together -- The Higher Power of Lucky, by Susan Patron (a great story!) -- and I helped outfit Bella for the Friday Fashion Show at Nichols Day Camp when she bemoaned the fact that she didn't have a THING to wear! Note the Italian "designer" dress with the maritime motif, the frog earrings, the Korean silk scarf, and beaded bracelets from French West Africa. The purple Crocs are hers! Such a fashionista!



Stay tuned for another woodcut that I'll post as soon as it's been gifted.

Kate Strides Again!

Kate, a Border Collie

6" X 10" woodcut

2008

I had the privilege of watching Kate in action the year I volunteered at Overlook Farm, the Northeast Learning and Livestock Center for Heifer Project International, in Rutland, Massachusetts. During a year’s sabbatical from teaching high-school English (1993-1994), I spent one day a week happily slopping hogs, fattening turkeys, milking goats, and admiring Kate. I also drew a calendar of farm animals and Kate was Miss December.

Miss December

8" X 10" pen and ink

1994

Kate was a canine cyclone of centripetal force. She was absolutely focused on her efforts to keep Overlook Farm’s diverse flock in line—sheep, goats, cows, a team of water buffalo, llamas, a camel, even the occasional errant hog, who probably outweighed her by a good 300 or 400 pounds. Kate executed her duties with determination, intelligence, and aplomb. Few of her furry charges could withstand the intensity of her unwavering stare. Neither could many humans. When she wasn’t busy bossing the farm animals around, Kate insisted on playing soccer with any two-footed minion she could corral. She was a fierce competitor! No mere two-footer ever scored against her.

I carved this woodblock of Kate thinking I’d submit it to the Common Ground Country Fair poster contest. Then I read their size preferences and realized that mine were way off. So, back to the cutting board! I’m about ready to embark on a new idea. Stay tuned for future woodcuts!

Black Bear Song

Black Bear Singing in the Dead of Night

6" X 12" woodcut

2008

Stuffed full of suet and sunflower seeds from the Blacks', the Snows', and the Moores' bird feeders, this bear has got plenty to sing about. He must still be digesting all those high-calorie treats because he hasn't made any repeat visits to our feeders.

[I spoke too soon! Last night at 7:00, Keith Snow called to say he'd just scared the bear out from under his bird feeders. Had he come down to our place? Lo and behold he had! There he was, right under our feeders. Tom, Kinsey, and I all got a good gander before he galloped away, past our vegetable garden (He didn't stop to check the gate this time) and through the woods to the Blacks' feeders. I called Anne to warn her. She almost got a photo of him, but the flash reflected off the window screens. All our bird feeders came inside for the night!]

This is my biggest woodcut to date. I carved it out of a piece of birch plywood and printed six copies this morning using a wooden spoon and a lot of elbow grease to hand-rub each print. This is the sixth and best print of the batch. I'm going to have to work on my printing techniques. Maybe get better ink (I'm using Speedball water proof) and better paper (I'm using Sumi "Kozo" plain rice paper). I got both ink and paper cheap at the local craft store. I'll have to go online and order some higher quality stuff. Any recommendations?

I get A Word A Day online, thanks to my tennis buddy Allen. Not only does it teach me a new and useful word each day, but also provides a thoughtful quotation. Today's seems particularly appropriate to my night bear woodcut.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

"How hard to realize that every camp of men or beast has this glorious starry firmament for a roof! In such places standing alone on the mountaintop it is easy to realize that whatever special nests we make -- leaves and moss like the marmots and birds, or tents or piled stone -- we all dwell in a house of one room -- the world with the firmament for its roof -- and are sailing the celestial spaces without leaving any track."

-John Muir, naturalist, explorer, and writer (1838-1914)