Lithographs
Grease, acid, gum arabic, ink, pressure, time,
blood, sweat, and tears.
I've explored several forms of lithography since college. The flora-wrapped tarot reader (Intuition) and the red moth (Atlas) are Pronto plate lithos, a lighter and more accessible alternative to traditional limestone blocks.
The others are stone lithographs. Each one is drawn on heavy limestone, printed, and then erased to make room for the next piece. I work with image transfers, grease washes, and grease pencils to build high-contrast compositions. The process is delicate. Even breathing on the stone can leave unwanted marks.
After drawing, the stone goes through a series of chemical treatments with gum arabic, citric acid, and tree resins. Rolling on the first layer of ink is the moment weeks of work becomes visible.
Printing itself is about pressure. The stone rolls through the press under careful layers of paper, plexiglass, and grease, and a single edition might repeat hundreds of times depending on the technique.
'Intuition'
The dream opens in a station. Vaulted glass, iron ribs overhead, a figure standing at the edge of the tracks. Grandpa spent his life around trains, so this is where he meets me first, in the architecture he knew by heart.
Wheels, steam, steel, filling the frame. This is what an engineer's granddaughter sees when her grandfather shows up in a dream.
The dream fractures. A figure emerges through the machinery, steam and light, guiding. His lessons didn't leave when he did. He's still here, still leading, still over my shoulder.
Linocuts
Plan, prepare, carve, test, carve, test, print, repeat.
A reductive linocut is a dance with permanence. You start with a single linoleum block and carve away layers for each color, printing between every carving session. Once you carve away material for a color, it's gone forever. You can't go back.
This locomotive piece shows what the technique can do. Deep blues in the background against rusty reds and stark whites make an almost confrontational portrait of a steam engine. I carved out each layer to build up the mechanical details, the circular headlight, the intricate grille, all the parts that make the engine feel like it's staring at you.
It's sculpting in reverse and in time. You plan from lightest to darkest, and every cut closes a door. The magic and the terror are the same thing, you commit, and the commitment shows up in every print in the edition.
'Line 41897'