The Obligatory Large Scale Woodcut Project (Part One of Two)

In Progress: Printed on Eastern Paper, August 2010. This image contains a narrative of the Chernobyl disaster: before, during, after, and what it may look like in the future.

Upon arriving at graduate school - I had long wanted to tackle a massive landscape relief block. I had become familiar with Tom Huck's work thanks to my teacher Mark Sisson while finishing my BFA, and was inspired by the scale and breadth of his woodcuts (some reaching 15 feet in length with inscrutable detail).  So the seed had been planted long ago - but the gears didn't really start grinding until I met Jenny Schmid while touring the UofM.  She introduced me to the work of Mexican Printmaker Artemio Rodriguez - in particular his massive woodcut "The Triumph of Death."  Adapted from Bruegel's painting of the same name, the landcape spans 9 feet, carved and printed in panels.  My research with Chernobyl was really heating up in my first term of grad school - and I felt the overwhelming desire to jump headlong into a lage scale woodcut that would put that research to use with ambitious and judicious levels of detail.  I bought an 8 by 4 foot  sheet of Birch ply MDF, and started drawing, commencing a two year affair which I document below.  I'm not going to hit you with a step by step - and for content you can look at my artist statement (the 100 word version currently).  Suffice it to say it has been a storied endeavor and I learned and cursed a lot, spent a lot of money, and essentially completed a thesis show worth of research in my first year of grad school.  I hit a lot of technical and creative speed bumps, and got a lot of heat and for investing so much in a single project.  In the end - I have no regrets, save that I am just now, in my thesis year nearing completion of the project after some time away.  Part One gets us through initial printing, some editorial choices and fine tuning - Part Two comes next when I edition the beast.  

Planning, research, drawing and carving were all happening at once, at first.

Then, some hand printed proofs.  The block was too large to move alone, so I printed bits with spoon.

My arsenal of tools.  I was in between studios - it would never be that clean.

I pulled a bunch of proof by hand.  I drew on some, and cut some up.  I would added freshly proofed sections.

I am still deciding on color - since it is a white line piece.

I had to sand it back after proofing, and re-shellac.

I drew in edits and additions as they occurred to me in reading.  I was studying the Robert Polidori photographs.

I put this off almost a year because I thought I would only take the finished block to print.  I was wrong, but I wanted to hang the print in a show.

This press is 9 x 4.5 ft.  The block is 8x4.  I knew it would fit, but had no idea how tight.  I printed three profs - 80 dollars worth of kitakata, and only the last one turned out.  I used a stiff wool blanket, and individually placed newsprint sheets.

I printed this alone.  I won't do that again.

The Mid-America Print Council Conference was held at the U that year.  I put this up hoping to catch the attention of Artemio Rodriguez.  I wanted a studio visit, but he was pretty busy with printing his own 5x4 (ish) woodcut.  I will write about that experience soon.

Just yesterday I got to the final passes of carving.  I expect it to take a few solid days or more to complete and then I will print it for my May thesis exhibition.

My work has changed a lot since this project began. I was interested in a documentarian approach at the time, and now I am leaning towards fictional narratives - but I have lots of room to work this piece into my currently developing ouvre.

More on this later, but I will say that the single most rewarding experience I have had a visual artists came from this piece.  During an open studio in 2010 a Ukrainian couple came in an were staring at the work.  At first I thought they were very angry with me and that I would have to defend my place in addressing the impact of such a painful event on a culture I am not from - and that happened when I was six, probably somewhere comfortably playing with a He-Man toy.  But after explaining my concerns with nuclear power and the phenomenon of human displacement - I think they understood that I was addressing a broader human issue: Global Displacement.  They were deeply moved by the piece and asked me many questions about the symbols and events depicted - and the KNEW exactly what I was saying with the work, because they had lived it.   Many Ukrainians emigrated out of necessity following this event.  The impact of Chernobyl is still growing exponentially.  The fact that just by looking that the print, they knew the story I was telling is an extremely rare and deeply satisfying occasion for a young artist.  Taking risks is scary, and validation is SO hard to come by.  No one can ever tell you if you are doing something right as an artist.  That best you can hope for is that someone will truly hear you.

Over course it was only later that I realized the scale is not particularly novel.  The content may be, but from what I understand the big woodcut is pretty in right now.