HOLIDAY PRINTS THROUGH THE YEARS

MIMZY JOY - 2010



I started printing up my own Holiday cards in 1995, having been to design school but never taking a printmaking class I decided to teach myself how to print linocuts. I can't quite remember exactly what inspired me to work with linocuts other than the fact that I believed by using this medium I would be forced to work in a less detailed fashion than what I was used to doing with many other mediums including, graphite, pen and ink and acrylics. As you can see with time, I found a way to work around that perceived notion of a"less-detailed" medium.

Not knowing what the proper tools were in order to do an actual linocut, I bought a piece of wood-backed linoleum and when the time came to actually cut the image out, I grabbed what I was used to working with, an xacto-blade and got to work cutting out my first piece. That became the 2-color self-portrait holiday card I created while still living in Boston in 1995.

I continued to work like this until I moved to NYC the following year and just happened to meet Javier Cintron, a brilliant artist in his own right who at the time was working in the printmaking workshop of Bob Blackburn. Through Javier, I discovered that there were proper tools to cut linoleum with and places where they actually had printing presses to print editions out on. I'd sneak in when Javier was monitoring the shop and work on my own projects while observing the rest of the artists. Eventually when I became comfortable enough with the environment, I became a monitor and as part of the job, I was allowed to use the presses during my shifts.

As time passed, I was able to purchase my own medium-sized press and the rest is history. I'm pretty sure at this point I have a few hundred images printed up over the years.

The following prints represent the work I've created as Holiday cards as well as gift tags between 1995 and this week. I look back at the images and I'm amazed at just how personal and revealing they really are. Although the subject matter changes each year, they have all become self-portraits allowing a glimpse into my state of mind at the time of creation.

I hope you enjoy checking the images out and HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!!!

1995 - SELF PORTRAIT


1996


1997


1997 - GIFT TAGS


1998 - NEW YORK'S INFLUENCE (One Of My Favorites Too)


1998


1999 - (A BUSY PRINTMAKING YEAR)








1999 GIFT TAGS


2000


2001 ( A Very Sad Year Here In The City)


2002


2002 - GIFT TAGS


2003 - SANTA CLAWS


2004


2004 GIFT TAGS


2005 - BETHESDA FOUNTAIN / CENTRAL PARK (Image Part of "1-A-DAY" Series)


2006 - ROBOSANTA (Image Part Of "A FACE A DAY" Series)


2007 - HOLIDAY WHIRLING DERVISH

2008 ROBO-SNOWMAN

HAPPY HOLIDAYS 2010

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

I decided that it would be mutually beneficial to have my friend Joshua Fennell over to carve and print our Holiday linocut cards. This was his first time to ever cut a lino out, and it inspired me to work on an image as well.

As you can see, my dog Mimzy is an amazing subject to have. ;0)


MIMZY - JOY




CUTTING THE GOLIDAY LINO




JOSHUA'S HOLIDAY CARD




JOSHUA AND HIS NEICE, "MIMZY"

MY SEED PACK ART MAKES IT ON "THE HUFFINGTON POST"

MY SUBMISSION TO THE SEED PACK ART COMPETITION

"But Greene and Muller--an ambitious, passionate team--aren't content to simply revive the art of seed-saving and preserve rare regional varieties of fruits, vegetables, flowers and herbs. They're out to revive and preserve another endangered species while they're at it: artists. So, every year, the Hudson Valley Seed Library, which offers an ever-growing variety of seeds through its online catalog, commissions original artwork for the its Art Pack seed collection, a botanical bonus that makes the packaging as distinctive and worthy of preservation as its contents."

THE FULL ARTICLE HERE:

Please check out THE HUDSON VALLEY SEED LIBRARY for a wonderful selection of original Holiday Gifts.