There are several reasons I make woodcut prints.  I learned to carve many years ago as a woodworker, and I still enjoy the whole process of working in wood and the feel of cutting with good tools.  I like participating in the traditions of printmaking.  I’m attracted to the unpretentiousness and accessibility - let's be honest, affordability - of prints as a creative medium.  I'm captivated by the magical moment that reveals what the print has finally become.

I carve on wood and usually print with European oil-based inks and an etching press, although I also work sometimes in the Japanese water-based hanga technique and print by hand.  In making color (and occasionally black and white) prints, I sometimes use a multi-block process where each color is carved and printed on a different block, and other times I use reduction printing where I carve the block or blocks away as successive layers of color are printed.

People often wonder how color prints are made, and the photo gallery below shows the steps in making one of my recent prints, "Springtime".  It's a reduction print, which means it's made with just one wood block.  I start by carving away the parts of the block that will remain white, print the first layer of ink, and carve more areas away after I print each successive layer of color.   Where the block is carved away, no more layers of ink will print.  The colors overlap and blend, of course, as they are printed.

Click on any of the images below for a slide show with more information about each step.