About: After I semi-retired from my mapmaking business a few years ago, I was visiting my sister Suzanne in California and she asked if I wanted to cut a rubber stamp. I did a small jade tree and it was really fun, and that reignited a passion for printmaking. Growing up in an artistic family, I have been immersed in art my entire life. Ma was an amazing painter and watercolorist, and my sister is
a prolific and talented artist and sculptor. I was always encouraged to express myself with art and photography. My 40+-year career as a cartographer has served me well in my current interest in printmaking. Since I practiced mapmaking in both the pre-computer and computer periods, I have a working knowledge of those techniques. It’s amazing how useful the old (abandoned) and computer (to-be-abandoned-at-any-moment) methods can be, and how they can be adapted into making art. I’ve even used an 1800’s cyanotype photo technology for transferring an image to a linocut plate to guide hand cutting. Computer imaging adds a whole different methodology and feel to the images. I like mixing the new with the old. Combining artistic methods can be interesting and useful too: I’ve been using silkscreens and linocuts together, or linocuts and stencils, and sometimes adding watercolor or gouache by hand over the top of any medium. I often make my own tools, like a multiplate color registration system, a silkscreen exposure unit, a silkscreen washout sink, barens for large linocut images, and a DYI linocut press. I take inspiration from both the natural world and the activities of humans.
