WOODCUTS, LINOCUTS
After an interesting adventure participating in the Steamroller Print Festival at ARTSPACE (triptych below) and thinking about the medium, I saw a similarity to the woodcarvings in Micronesia, and then, off I went, working with travel photos and producing a series of woodcuts reflecting my island experiences. Combining these with writings on hand and newly minted pieces resulted in my book, Guam and Other Islands: A Miscellany, discussed elsewhere.
Reducing the photograph detail also gives me a result that resembles the negatives we commonly used to record our life stories before modern technology. It was always a bit of a mystery to decipher them as we held them up to the light, squinting to read in reverse.
These factors permit me to keep the unsaid/unseen hovering in the background, a presence that suggests the viewer/reader participates in creating meaning. What we presume to know is transitory, and always only partly expressed.
