Year of the Horse exhibit

Ma: The Horse by minouette

Friday, January 31st is the Chinese New Year! We're beginning the Year of the Horse. Kung hei fat choi! 恭喜发财! Have a prosperous new year and enjoy your little red envelops.

To celebrate the new lunar year, PROOF Gallery in the Distillery is hosting their annual international printmaking exhibit, for horse-themed prints made using traditional printmaking methods, from all over the world (including my linocut, shown above). Come for the Chinese New Year Opening celebration or check out the exhibit throughout February.

Horse Latitudes by minouette

Andromeda, Cetus, Perseus and Pegasus

This is a linocut of the Greek myth of Andromeda. Her mother, Queen Cassiopeia bragged that Andromeda was more beautiful than the Nereids, or sea nymphs, angering Poseidon, god of the sea. He sent Cetus the sea monster to ravage the coast of the kingdom as punishment. The King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia were advised by an oracle that they needed to sacrifice their daughter to Cetus to save their land. She was striped bare and chained to a rock by the coast. She proved a very lucky princess, because who should happen by but the hero Perseus, fresh from his successful battle with the snake-headed Gorgon Medusa (whose head was in his sack). You see, Medusa's head turned the living to stone, which made it quite the useful weapon. Further, Pegasus the flying horse was born from the stump of her neck, so really this defeating Medusa was win-win for Perseus. He, of course, fell in love, slayed the monster and married Andromeda.

In the print, the monster Cetus encircles the rock on which Andromeda is chained. Perseus is shown descending on Pegasus, his flying horse, to battle the monster. You can see a couple of snakes peeping from his sack. Some versions of the myth suggest that Perseus was invisible at this moment, since he was wearing Hades's helm (note: Harry Potter was not the first to have a cloak of invisibility), but through the magic of printmaking, Perseus and Pegasus are made visible. (Flying horses are far more interesting when you can see them. Or perhaps, this is moment before he donned the cloak.)

Most of this story is commemorated in the night sky. Cassiopeia, Cepheus, Andromeda, Perseus, Cetus and Pegasus are all constellations.

The print is in a variable edition of 6 on lovely Japanese kozo (or mulberry) paper, 11 inches or 28 cm square. The block was inked 'à la poupée', with different colours applied directly to a single block. The sea is royal blue, the sea monster deep red with yellow eyes, the hair and wings on Perseus' helmet are yellow.

(May replace this with a higher resolution scan once I get Photoshop on my early Christmas gift).

Horse Latitudes

I've been reading a cultural history of the sea and it inspired me to illustrate the 'horse latitudes' (with horses galloping across the subtropical highs upon the Pacific, of course).



It is printed by hand on lovely Japanese kozo (or mulberry paper), 11 inches by 12.5 inches (27.9 cm by 31.8 cm), in an edition of 12.

I carved a view of the hemisphere, complete with all the islands and continents in reverse, showing the major trade wind patterns. The winds travel consistently east to west along the hot equator, west to east in high latitudes like the 'roaring 40s', but at the horse latitudes, between 30 and 35 degrees, both north and south, in the region of the subtropical highs known as the horse latitudes, things are not so predictable. It is consistently warm and dry, but winds are variable, which, once upon a time, could be terrifying to sailors. I've illustrated the horse latitudes with actual little horses, galloping around the planet. Since this this print is about the sea, it is the oceans which are 'positive' (printed in ink) and the land which is the negative space. Sometimes we look at the oceans as the space which separates the land masses, but it is possible to have the opposite view or consider the oceans as what connects us all. I love the unexpectedness of this name, and playing with words.

The origins of the term are debated. Some claim that the name comes from sailor's "dead horse" ritual, during which they would beat a straw effigy of a horse and then throw it overboard; they did this to celebrate having worked off their "dead horse time" (the period they were in debt to the paymaster, since they spent their advance pay too quickly, ending up broke by the time a westbound ship from Europe could reach the horse latitudes). Others claim that Spanish colonial ships to the New World, laden with horses, would risk being becalmed in the doldrums or horse latitudes, and when fresh water ran scarce, the horses were the first to go (though this might be a mere folk legend).

The typography of the word horse is designed to suggest the animal, with its mane and hooves. The horses themselves are inspired by Muybridge's early photos, showing their motion. I've also very specifically chosen the view of our Earth. We have many biases in maps; we expect north to be up, but that's arbitrary, and here in North America we expect to see the Americas on the left (because we read left to right). But, in this print, it's all about the Pacific, so it goes in the middle.

I'm really proud of writing that description without feeling compelled to try and first explain about Hadley cells. That took restraint.

home is where the art is

I actually collect prints of soft sea creatures (encephalopods and jellyfish and such)- really specific, but surprisingly easy. This is my woodblook moku hanga "Little Boat, Big Ocean", a 4-colour screenprint by animalsleep, and my jellyfish lino block print in my hallway. The hallway is a bit dark and narrow, so the photograph does not really do these prints justice; I think they look better in person.

The art in the bedroom is supposed to suggest sleep, including the starry kite constellation screenprint of labpartners, Emma Kidd's origami bear, Di's painting of the animals on the duvet and the birch trees at night etching.



I love the particular brand of magic of etsy printmaker animalsleep and so I bought this screenprint of a boy and giant hawk against the night sky. One can imagine the fairy story to go with the image.
I framed it using some printed Chinese paper as a matt. Not a propos but I have been enjoying using patterned patters in framing and the colours are exactly right.

This night time image is also on the bedroom wall.



This was a bonus with the animalsleep prints so I framed it somewhat idiosyncratically in a vintage oval frame with some Japanese washi papers as matts, and added the night scene with crescent moon to the bedroom wall.



By the table, I have the kozyndan photo of bunnyfish and koi, the found giant Indonesian shadow puppet, a plate, a half horse on a plaque, a tiny water colour, a horse paper doll from the PinPals, a Dutch silhouette, a painting by Di and the Yeehaw Industries psychic owl calendar.

I is for iguana, and insect, and indigo

This is the latest panel in my alphabet quilt-in-progress. It is a hand-block printed iguana in green ink on an old (though high thread count) cotton shirt in gray. The 'I' is printed with a vintage letterpress block. The insects were screenprinted by Smoking Lily - they sell scraps of fabric with prints they don't use in their clothing line. The insects in blue (on tee shirt material) are reverse appliqued onto the black fabric with one white fly.

What do you think? Maybe 2009 will be the year and I will actually finish this quilt.

I need to finish the 'N' and 'O' panels, which are in progress. I have to start 'Q', 'U', 'V', 'X', 'Y' and 'Z'. Then the actual quilting process can begin.