Elegy

There was this beautiful old tree in Shirley Center, healthy and vibrant, a twin trunk White pine tree that was probably not an intended planting.  It’s roots were extensive, they were shifting and even engulfing some quite striking 18th/ 19th century gravestones.   Despite protests, the selectman cut down the tree.

These prints are part of a new experiment with carving into a Speedball speedy cut plate, a journey which began with making stamps for gelatin printing.  Unfortunately, after these prints were made, I washed the “plate” and set it out to dry in my dish rack, but it broke in half when I moved something else and it got knocked around.  I would have been more upset but I was already thinking that the negative spaces don’t quite work, and I’d like to do it over.  I’ll try again this week.

I’m now using Golden Open acrylics for these prints, and they are delightful, everything the speedball inks weren’t.  These are slow drying acrylic paints, suitable for monoprinting. The paper is a lightweight Rives BFK, which is also pretty perfect, although it came with labels right over the watermark that are difficult to peel off without taking some fiber with it.