The team at Big Ink specializes in large scale woodblock printmaking (over 24x36) hosting one-day printing events with black ink and a giant press.   

After completing Stratatella, Glace Waves, and Calving I wanted to keep challenging the scale of my work, so I began planning for a black on white project for Big Ink. Most of my prior print work was focused on multi process and layers of color, so it was an interesting transition to fit my design goals into a single process.  I determined the wood block size by the interior dimensions of my truck with the seats down.  It came out to be a 24x 87 cherry ply ordered from home depot.  

The composition was configured into a panorama style landscape of black sands beach known as Reynisfjall area near Vik, Iceland.  It is a dramatic place with volcanic rock columns piercing the ocean (Reynisdrangar). Black stones and sand created from volcanic basalt create the beach and the steep mountain in its background.   I carved this block from a sketch I drew up after looking at my photos from my stay in Vik.  It is such a dramatic place, having a dramatic piece of wood using only black and white is an exciting way to express the mood of Reynisfjara Beach.

While carving, I wanted to keep it whimsical and dramatic so once I had the sketch I focused on texture and line.  My goal was to keep the woodgrain’s texture in the foreground/ sandy area, however when using a press woodgrain is usually lost.  Thanks to Big Ink I was shown a few tricks to keep wood grain, so I experimented with these new techniques on this block.  Fingers crossed the grain stays in the foreground! See the videos for the woodgrain trick and for full process.

(more on this project coming in August 2020)