Upcoming Exhibitions!

I've got another new piece underway, although I'm not doing a great job of documentation. I'll put something together eventually, but in the meantime....hey! There are some shows underway and coming up soon!

Birds in Art

The flagship exhibition of the Woodson Art Museum in Wisconsin is the highlight of every year. I'm delighted that "A Certain Light" was selected for the show and will subsequently be accessioned into the museum's permanent collection. Birds in Art opened September 1 and continues through December 1.

"A Certain Light," reduction linocut © Sherrie York

Society of Animal Artists

The SAA's 64th juried annual members exhibition, Art and the Animal, opened September 1 at the Sioux City Public Museum, Iowa. The show continues through November 30. And... hmmm... look what's on the cover of the exhibition catalog. (Catalogs can be ordered online at the SAA website.)

Society of American Graphic Artists

SAGA's 89th Annual Members Exhibition will run October 22 to November 3 at the Arts Center on Governors Island, New York. 

"In the Shallows," reduction linocut © Sherrie York

Also.... I've a solo exhibition coming up at Blue Sage Center for the Arts in Paonia, Colorado, opening at the end of October. More details on this soon!

From Battleships to Bird Art at the Camden Library

Hey, Maine peeps! This Thursday evening, April 19, I'll be giving at presentation at the Camden Library, 55 Main Street. Event is free and open to the public, so come on out!

"Dinner Party," reduction linocut, © Sherrie York

Sherrie York presents “From Battleships to Bird Art” as part of the Midcoast Maine Audubon lecture series on April 19, 2018, at 7:00 pm. The talk aligns with Maritime Month 2018 at Camden Public Library.  How did a material created for battleship flooring become a medium for bird art? Linoleum block prints, or linocuts, share their origins with naval ships, their process with woodcuts, and their history with artists from Picasso to Queen Elizabeth. Visually, linocut styles run the gamut from graphic social commentary to delicate floral, landscape, and wildlife images. 

Internationally recognized linocut printmaker Sherrie York will share her own linocut process, inspiration, and frequently bird-focused work. Her linocuts have been presented in national and international exhibitions, including the Woodson Art Museum’s prestigious “Birds in Art,” and the Society of Animal Artists’ “Art & the Animal,” and her work is represented in corporate and museum collections in the United States and abroad. She serves on the board of the Society of Animal Artists and is the Coordinator of the Audubon Artist Residency at Hog Island Audubon Camp in Bremen.

New Year's Cheer.... kudos everywhere!

My goodness! What a great start to 2013. There's nothing like recognition to inspire me to work even harder in the new year.

My little magpie linocut (now titled "Lurking," in honor of silent blog followers hiding in the cyber shadows) was voted "Best Picture of 2012 (Nature)" by readers of Katherine Tyrrell's Making a Mark.

This was the 7th year for the Making a Mark Art Blog Awards... so kudos are due back to Katherine for her devotion to art and artists around the world. Thank you.

And THEN... who woulda thunk it? Charley Parker over at Lines and Colors surprised me with a feature about my work in his December 29th post. Charley presents some really beautiful work with concise and thoughtful commentary and links to all sorts of online resources. And, holy cow! "My" post comes between articles about Monet and Le Brun? Get. Out. (Amusing aside: A scraper site that gathers celebrity gossip picked up this post, too. My name in big letters and an article excerpt next to photos of Hillary Clinton and the Denver Broncos. Yeah, baby. Linocuts are All That.)

And THEN... last but not least, Ian Rogers at Grey Not Grey put together a nice post about my linocuts just yesterday. I love that Ian hit on one of my own inner struggles with the following statement:

" There’s something deeply refreshing about somebody who simply makes art based on their experience of nature. We don’t all have to be exploring the implicit tension between modes of art history or whatever."

Yeah. What he said.

All this cyberbuzz is wonderful, but DANG. I have to get back to work. Guess what the FedEx driver brought me yesterday? 24" x 36" sheets of lino! Now all I have to do is figure out what to DO with them. New year, here I come!

The Exciting Conclusion

At the conclusion of last week's episode, Use-Only-Five-Colors Woman was engaged in an epic wrestling match with the nefarious Just-One-MORE-Color Woman for possession of the end-of-winter grasses linocut.

The battle raged on for some time, as our superhero and her super-adversary were of equal strength, skill, and stubbornness. (Emphasis on stubbornness.) In the end a compromise was reached... a stalemate, if you please.

UOFC Woman conceded that JOMC Woman could try a sixth color on just one print. Just to appease curiosity.

This is an embiggenable image... so you can decide the victor for yourselves.
(6th color added on the left.)

This action solved nothing, as both versions were deemed meritorious. In the end UOFC Woman and JOMC Woman each took possession of the half of the edition. There was some grumbling heard from both sides, and perhaps there was a little surreptitious fist-shaking behind backs, but territory sharing was embraced in the interest of studio-wide peace.

Whew! That was a close one.

Converting to Grayscale, or, Linocuts Get Poetic

At the end of April I was approached by our local poetry ensemble, the River City Nomads, about including some linocuts in their soon-to-be published chapbook. The only catch was that the work would be published strictly in black and white. Well, that... and they needed it... um... the following week, really.

One of the members brought me a draft manuscript and I started sifting through my files for appropriate images that were either already black and white or that would hold up if converted from color to grayscale. It became clear that I wouldn't have everything they needed, so on International Print Day in May I put together one additional small piece and then bundled all the scans off to the publication designer.

"On Stage – River City Nomads" was out in time for the Nomads' performances at this weekend's Colorado Art Ranch Artposium, and I was tickled to see that a few of my color linocuts converted quite well to black and white.

Splashing to the finish

Alrighty then! The only thing more satisfying than almost-complete prints on the drying rack is complete prints on the drying rack.

It's funny how often I think an image looks pretty good, and then I add one more color and I wonder why I thought the previous step looked complete. It's also funny (in a warped sort of way) how often "one more color" leads to "okay, one MORE color."

Color 10

One last dark just below the duck and the piece is finished. Doesn't have a title yet, though....

11th and final color, linocut, 12 x 9 inches
Click to embiggen

I learned a lot through the process of this particular piece, and I'm already chomping at the bit to tackle some more complex water images. (Wendy, I'm starting to understand your compulsion! ;-) But first I need to get moving on the piece for the haiku project. My efforts so far have been very experimental... it's time for some focus!

Okay, back to work.

Now that I'm done hyperventilating over an excess of exposure, it really is time to settle down and get back to work. Colors 2 and 3 have been applied to the current linocut, and of course I'm still working on the icon project and a couple of other illustrations for clients.

Colors 1 and 2 could have been applied simultaneously, but I didn't have quite the necessary roller width to do a light-to-dark-to-light blend all in one pass. This way I managed to retain a few lighter blue bits from the first pass... a bonus I hadn't planned for but was happy to capitalize on. The difference in the blues was hard to express in a photo until I shot the image sideways... sorry if it doesn't make a lot of sense this way!

Color 3 is a straightforward gray-brown, although inked lightly to keep a little variety in the tree trunks and the background-to-be-resolved later. It's time to slow down now, as the next stage involves quite a bit of "noodly" carving of skinny branches.

The snow scene complusion seems to be everywhere right now... Stuart's still doing a delicate linocut dance at Wildlife with Pen and Brush, Sonya's been creating a cloud of pastel at Sonya's Daily Art Journal, and Ann Lewis tells me she's about to tackle the Welsh winter in lino, too. Ooo-whee! I love all the activity!

As if I didn't have anything else to do this week, I started mucking around and updating my website. I shudder to think of the condition of my host server right now... a melange of altered old pages, abandoned old pages, and completely new pages. I'll clean it all up when everything's finally satisfactory, but OOOH. Messy. (Sorry, Ernie. I promise I'll tidy up my space soon.)

Linocuts on PPLD TV! The video is here!

PPLD Off the Wall: February 2011 from PPLD TV on Vimeo.

Oh. My.

Late this afternoon I received an email from Ralph Giordano at ArchAngel Productions with an ominous link.  Yup. To the premiere of "my" segment for the PPLD TV short program "Off the Wall."

I made the Darling Man come and stand next to me when I clicked PLAY. It's probably an understatement to say that I, um, dislike having my picture taken. Video? Even worse. But when the Pikes Peak Library District contacted me to announce that I will be their Featured Artist in February, I learned a video interview came with the honor. My mouth cheerfully agreed, but the rest of me went in to a bit of dread-and-panic mode. (Video. Shudder.)

Thankfully Ralph and his co-producer Lee Graham worked wonders with the limited screen charm they had available to them. They were kind and encouraging and fun to work with. (Although I did tell them I would also let everyone know they put me on a pedestal when I did my interview. Literally. I was a bit vertically challenged for the shot they had in mind. I had to stand on the video equipment's hard case so they could see my linos in the background of the frame.)

You can see other artist features on In My Eye Entertainment's Vimeo channel. I imagine "Art Underfoot" might be the lead video until late February when the next feature takes front and center. (UPDATE: The video link above now goes directly to the PPLD TV channel and is the permanent link to "my" segment.)

If you have a Vimeo account and can leave comments, please let Ralph and Lee know what you think of their work. You can tell 'em I sent you!

When the cleanup takes longer than the printing...

I did, indeed, manage to print all 18 linocut icons on Saturday. The printing itself didn't take too long, but cleaning 18 little blocks sure did! Ooph. It took the wind out of my sails in a big way, and I spent the rest of the day in a rocking chair with my nose in a book. Time to abandon the Wonder Woman persona.

I'm reasonably happy with most of the images, although there are one or two that I'm less pleased with now that they're printed. I'm going to scan everything tomorrow and send it off to the client and see what she has to say, so watch for at least a few critters to show their little faces here as they are approved. (Or not.)

You might be able to see from this deliberately vague photo that the images seem to have odd smudges top and bottom. This was also deliberate... I left small "railings" of uncarved lino along the edges of each block to support the brayer when inking and hopefully avoid too much stray ink where I didn't want it. Seemed to work. Since these are not prints to edition but illustrations to scan and have in a digital format, the extraneous blobs won't ultimately be seen. Photoshop, baby.

Of course there was that OTHER block in the jig on Friday, too.

I didn't intend to do yet another snow shadows piece, but I think I'm being subconsciously influenced by our complete lack of the white stuff in Salida this year. Snow all around us, but here in town? I don't think we've had an inch TOTAL all season. Not kidding. (Come to think of it, though... I did snow pieces this time last year, too.)

The big 16 x 20 piece is still mentally incubating, but I wanted something else to work on in the meantime. This new lino-to-be is a reworking of an image I did in black and white a few years ago. Block size is 9 x 12.

Funny. I just realized that Stuart Brocklehurst over at Wildlife with Pen and Brush started a snow piece this weekend, too. I'm intrigued by what he has going already, pop over and check it out.

RTP: Ready to print!

WHOOSH! There went another week! I'm getting wind-burn from the speed of January...

Probably my biggest accomplishment of the week was finishing the carving on eighteen (count 'em) little linocuts bound for use as wayside map icons. They're stacked on the table and ready for printing tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it... just imagine how satisfying it will be to have a drying rack full-to-brimming with the little darlings!

I made good progress on a couple of other projects this week, too, and I spent one morning helping the students of the Link School get their birding groove on. But OOOOH! The most fun part of the last few days was the arrival of a package containing this fabulous surprise:

Yup, it's a beautiful journal, hand sewn by none other than Jill Bergman of Art on the Page. Our virtual friendship stepped in to the real world a few weeks ago when Jill (the actual, real-live Jill) visited Salida. Our mutual impulse seemed to be to share books, in addition to printmaking... lucky me!

(By the way, you should pop over to Art on the Page and see what Jill's working on now. Linocut illustrations for a children's book! Absolutely delightful!)

Hopefully I'll get a chance to christen the book this weekend, after I get all these icons printed. But, wait.....

What's that other thing in the registration jig?

Hmm. Mayyyyybeeeee....

Work continued over the weekend on the current linocut, although for a long time yesterday I thought it was going to be a major "do over."

I'm not certain anymore how many times I fussed with the yellow-green-yellow-orange-yellow business... four passes, maybe? After mixing and rolling and printing and remixing I had this, and I was feeling pretty darn skeptical:

And, of course, at this point I realized I had a few little areas that I wanted to have lighter and NOT yellow or green or orange. So out came the white ink to make a light gray. At which point I was even more skeptical:

But three cheers for a dark color, which almost always makes me feel a little better about life, the universe and everything. I think I can finish this in two more passes, but I'm going to give it a day or two to dry (there are multiple wet layers here now) and see if some sort of brilliant aha! moment reveals the way things will go from this point.

As for the ongoing 100 Thumbnails project, I've got twelve so far for October, so I'm more or less right on schedule. My friend Roberta Smith has decided to join me in the challenge, and I can see already that she's going to keep me on my toes.

The week ahead is going to be a busy one (again! Didn't I think my schedule would be slowing down this month?) full of contract assignments and a trip down to Manitou Springs to deliver linocuts to a new gallery, The Green Horse. I'm also delighted to report that I've been invited to have shows at two different libraries in Colorado Springs this winter, as part of the Pikes Peak Library District's public art program. If you're in the Colorado Springs area, you'll have opportunities to see linocuts at the Penrose Library on Cascade in January and at the Ruth Holley Branch Library in February.

Do you hear the little voice? I do.

Must. Keep. Printing.

"Underfoot, Overhead" at the SteamPlant

If this past holiday weekend wasn't enough socializing for you, come on by the Paquette Gallery at the Salida Steamplant on Saturday from 4-6pm for the latest in my ongoing effort to blanket my home county in relief prints. In addition to linocuts I've lined up some great musical entertainment. Three guesses who-- first two don't count.

New homes for linocuts

Since I seem to be on such a posting roll at the moment, I thought it would be nice to mention that several linos have found new homes in the past few weeks. My sincere thanks and hopes for a long and happy art relationship to new linocut collectors.

Coastal Pines (at left) went off to a new wall in Nebraska.

Two of the edition of Decay, Comma found homes... one in Ohio and one here in Colorado.

A tiny Lynx and a tiny Mussel Shells went tripping across the pond to Norway and England.

FIVE of the edition of Deep are now scattered across the globe!

And at the end of this week, another Early Snow - Ponderosa Pine will be off to be a birthday present for a lucky local.

Hm. My work seems to get around more than I do. I think I need to work on that!

Leaf litter linocut

One of these days I'm going to get good lighting and a decent camera and have images to show you that have neither reflections nor shadows across them. One of these days.

In the meantime... we do what we can. A tenth color went down yesterday on the new linocut... tentatively titled "Leaf Litter," although I have a large one in mind on this same theme, so I don't know if I want to use the title yet. This image is 6" x 9."

I have mixed feelings about how this piece turned out. I feel good about the experimenting I did with color, especially the order in which it was applied. In terms of color palette, this is the most diverse thing I've done, I think. I wanted a contrast between warmer leaves and cooler ground tones, which sort of works, but could have been more pronounced. The final color looks a little too much like black... The value contrast is great, but I'd like to have the color a little less stark. It this were a watercolor, I might consider washing the entire "background" with a little transparent color. I could do that here, too... just cut another block... hmmm. Maybe. It looks like I only "lost" 2 prints of the 20 I started with (Aiming for 15), so I could mess around with a couple of them and see if it works.

Final verdict? Reasonably satisfied. Satisfaction with a new image is usually short-lived... I can always find something I'd like to do differently the next time around. Every time I print I either solve an earlier question OR add to the list of curiosities about the process. I think that's part of why I keep working... why any of us keep doing what we do, really. Just enough answers to keep us from giving up, but plenty of mysteries to keep us tantalized and on the trail.

Nail-biting linocut finish

I've spent the last few days in manic (or is that maniacal?) printing mode, determined to get the oak leaf linocut finished before I leave town next week. (More on this later.)

Color #9 went down without a fuss. Since it was only a tiny orange-red shape I cut a mask and inking and burnishing proceeded without mishap. I was quite tickled when this little tiny shape gave purpose and meaning to the yellow and orange blobs of some days ago.


And then there was Color #10.

In the finished piece this color is only present in long, thin areas, but there are a good number of them. Cutting a mask would be almost impossible and not really solve anything, so I did some judicious inking and focused on more selective burnishing to get good color adhesion in the critical areas. This meant there would be extra color where it DIDN'T belong, but the last color would cover this up. Theoretically. Remember the little issue long about Color #5 or 6?


EEK! This looks scary, doesn't it? Looks like the whole thing has fallen apart. Don't panic. Don't panic. One more color to go.


Whew! This morning Color #11 went on and everything held together. It was a pretty tedious burnish, my wrists and fingers are sore, but I am satisfied with the result. I'll get a better shot in the next day or two, after a little drying happens and the glare goes off the wet ink, but I wanted to share the immediate relief of completion (ooooh... printmaking pun not intended) with you.

But wait.

What's this?

A tiny flock of sparrows

Or is that a flock of tiny sparrows?

Whichever way you look at it, this was fun! Six colors on a linocut only 3" x 3"!

I forgot to take photos of Color 4, and only just thought of it as I was adding Color 5. We now have a non-convention-conforming image in the string. Appalling.

Rusty head color, which ultimately only shows in 2 spots on the little critter's head:


Color 5, some green in the grass:


And Color 6, the ubiquitous black-or-near-black:


Despite my inability to hold the camera square to the image, a closer look at the finished beastie:


I'm enjoying these little prints for a couple of reasons:

• They're small and don't take much time, so I can work on them even when I only have 30 minutes or less to spare.
• They're small and don't take much time, so provide semi-instant gratification.
• They're small and don't take much time, so "Oh, oops, DUH" comes more frequently and tightens the learning curve.

So far I've sorted out some technical questions when working this size, mostly about registration. One would think that little pieces of paper would be easier to manage than larger ones, but one would be mistaken.

The next round I want to answer some aesthetic questions. I've been feeling that familiar itch to threaten my comfort zone.... YOU know what I mean.

Not sure when that next round will start, exactly, since I've had to clear the table to get back to a couple of illustration projects, but you'll have a front row seat. Promise.

Bet you thought I was slacking off

We "lost" pretty much all of last Thursday to Dancing With Plumbers, so yesterday (Saturday) was devoted to catching up with work things. The DM spent his day in further recording efforts. I spent mine tweaking text and organizing an inventory of historic photos to acquire for the Collegiate Peaks Byway interp sign project.

By evening, however, I was ready to fling the entire project off into the Great Beyond. What's the obvious cure for too much time in front of the computer? Time in front of the lino jig, of course!

Second colors were pulled last night on both of the tiny linocuts, and this evening (after a looooooonnngggg hike in the hills just outside of town) color #3 went down on both of them, as well. For the sunflower this means the game is over, but for the sparrow, well, we've got 3 colors to go. What happened to "little and simple," eh? I just can't seem to help myself.

Sunflower colors 2 & 3.


Sparrow colors 2 & 3 (3 more to go!)

More tiny linocuts underway....

The plumbing adventure which began on Monday ended up becoming a day-long distraction yesterday, so schedule-wise everything has got a little out of whack. The good news is that, whilst I couldn't get a good run at any big tasks yesterday, I did manage to squeeze in the first carving on two tiny linocuts.

I also tore down a stack of paper and got my jig all set up last night, so this morning it was once again time for Printing in Pajamas. I don't know... just a strange personal quirk, I guess. There's something nice about going straight from bed to printing table. When I'm finished printing I can eat breakfast and take a shower and turn my attention to the rest of the day with the satisfaction of already having completed something worthwhile.

So.... new on the rack: Tiny sunflowers and a tiny lark sparrow-to-be. Yippee!

A new record

Four colors, 20 prints, 2 days. :-) But now I really MUST get back to client projects. (sigh)

2:30 a.m. Why am I awake?

Sunday (yesterday, a scant two-and-a-half hours ago) was a great day. Got up in the morning and pulled prints, then the DM and I went for a goodly hike up Browns Creek, did some quality career and home-life planning for the next few weeks, spent a little time doing minor spring maintenance to the yard, took a stroll downtown for tea and a cookie, and THEN I printed AGAIN. By 9:00pm we were both pretty pooped, so retired to bed with books until overtaken by sleep. Can there BE a more perfect day?

I slept like a rock until 30 minutes ago. Now? Wide awake. At least I get to catch up with blog reading. But don't expect clever writing at this hour.

Must tell you, after the two month (!) process of the pine cone linocut, I am diggin' this little bitty thing in color. In just over 24 hours I was on the 3rd color pass! The fourth and final will hopefully be accomplished later today. 48 hours to a complete edition? I feel slightly tipsy over the entire idea. Granted, this is not a thing of complex and subtle carving... but simple graphic compositions have their own kind of appeal.

So... Sunday morning's pass:


That accomplished, we threw lunch goods and water in a day pack and headed up to Brown's Creek. There are a couple of trailheads in the area which connect to the Colorado Trail (a 469-mile hiking trail mostly through the mountains), which we "discovered" in November when we went holiday tree-hunting.

We started up the Wagon Wheel trail, but as it was on a north-facing slope we discovered too much snow (read: slush and ice). Slow and slippery going. Trudging along through all that was not really how we wanted to spend the day, so after about half an hour we turned around and went back to the Brown's Creek trail, on a south-facing slope. Much better! Despite the fact that it was really quite windy down below, we managed to stay wind-free for most of the afternoon.

The first attempt. Definitely not terrain for hiking in tennis shoes.

Look. I conceded to a photo of me. Don't get used to it.

The view from Brown's Creek trail, roughly southeast.
That's our town at the bottom of the valley, just beyond the swath of yellow pasture land.

When we returned I was surprised and delighted to discover the little blanketflowers were ready for another pass, so color #3 went down before supper.


Today it's back to work on assorted client projects. Still have that 18x24 watercolor to finish for the sagebrush poster and some writing to do for the Byway interpretive project. Other things, too, but those are the big priorities the first part of the week. Actually, the biggest priority is to try to get back to sleep. Remedies, anyone?