This Autumn

Though the work I’ll show today is black and white, outdoors the colours were magnificent this past week. We came out of much rain and clouds to days of sunshine on the turning leaves. Photos don’t do the leaves justice, but invoke memories. I felt that that’s as it should be, that the natural world cannot be duplicated on my cell phone.

Since completing the Household Jungle painting/drawing that I showed last time, I’ve been contemplating next moves. Often the creative process involves lots of mulling over in a sort of incubation period. I’ve continued with line drawings in my sketchbook, simply to feel a connection to that part of my life. Here’s one of objects sitting on my work table:

I’ve also begun a sketchbook exchange with a friend that I’ll show here as the project progresses. Prior to this, I went searching through my early prints to see if I’d done any prints on paper of the Shield lino block that I posted. I didn’t find any, but came across a linocut I recalled and some experimental wood engravings that I’d forgotten about.

Here’s the linocut I vaguely recalled. It’s of a possible title card for the Mirrors of the Heart deck I made in 1994. I considered several names for the deck and The Good Deal was one of them that I eventually decided against. But I like the linocut which is similar to the one I ended up using.

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Here’s the wood engraving I found, at several stages. At first it looked like random marks to me until I turned it upside down and saw the face. I have no idea what the marks on the right side are. Perhaps I was playing around with design and just getting used to the tools. The print has a mysterious air to me because it’s unclear and feels like an archaeological find from my past.

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