Recent work: exploring black-line woodcuts

I was instantly drawn to the opaque, textural and painterly surface, printed on black paper that casts a veil of darkness over all. With this treatment, the cut-out lines reverse to read as scrawled black lines. The gouged-out would-be negative shapes transform into substantive black marks by the reversal. Seeds of inspiration, and investigation, settled into a deep fold of my creative brain. Sometimes things just just fall into place.

Some weeks after Bill's presentation, I Googled "black-line woodcut" and found some amazing and inspiring works by Anne Ryan, ca. 1945, among others. It appears to have been a technique favored in the 1940s-60s. I love the mid-century aesthetics and I have many nostalgic associations with the whole gestalt of the period. It was like discovering buried treasure.

Anne Ryan Fruit on a White Plate, ca. 1945. 17" x 17", edition of 30. Here is a link to a NYT article about her work. — **Anne Ryan Fruit on a White Plate, ca. 1945. 17" x 17", edition of 30.** Here is a link to a NYT article about her work.

I am fortunate to have stumbled upon this printmaking technique at this juncture. For the past few weeks my experiments with paper and inks have been both fruitful and frustrating, but that's the way it always goes acquiring new tools and learning to use them. I am beginning to get a feel for it. I want to express the tenebrous atmosphere of winter in North Iceland and colors that emerged from the darkness. I want to capture my experience of connection to Icelandic place, and to the ephemeral here and now.