Babies and Woodcuts
I began carving woodcuts in 2008. Woodcuts are brusque, harsh and bold. The carving process is slow and methodical. A single carved block can take weeks, even months to complete. You learn to live with small mistakes. If you make a large mistake, you’re forced to start over.
What makes a woodcut portrait come to life are age lines, wrinkles and weathered faces. A hardened actor like Lee Marvin translates much better than a young Audrey Hepburn. The ideal subject for a woodcut portrait is a coal miner, an aging cowboy or a grizzled war veteran. I once carved a “Faces of Woodcut” portrait series. The subjects included Steve Buscemi, Don Knotts and NBA Coach Jeff Van Gundy. Woodcut artists are like Bizarro World plastic surgeons adding wrinkles instead of removing them.
Several years ago, I was commissioned by an old college friend to carve a woodcut of his 15-month old son. This was my first carving of a baby. The boy was beautiful, vibrant and alive. I was excited to capture his essence, to channel his spirit through my carving tools onto a linoleum-covered block of wood.
The carving process took six weeks. When I was finished, my friend invited me for dinner. He was excited to see the results. I watched as he slowly peeled away the wrapping paper revealing the print. His smile contorted into a scowl as if he’d bitten into an unripe persimmon. He stared in…
