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).

Ernst Haeckel and some of his favorite critters

Ernst Haekel (February 16, 1834 – August 9, 1919), the famed German biologist, naturalist, philosopher, physician, professor and artist, whose book "Art Forms in Nature" filled with lovely 19th century scientific illustrations of biology has inspired many of my prints. This month the mad scientists of etsy challenge theme is Ernst Haeckel, so here we have the man himself, surrounded by several of the creatures he depicted. Clockwise from the top we have: rugosa, a foraminifer (or foram), a tubularid hydroid, homo sapiens (Ernst Haeckel), a dinoflagellate, and a sea slug or nudibranch.



This is an original lino block print printed in various colours, water-based block printing ink on Japanese kozo (or mulberry) paper. The first edition is limited to four prints The sheets are 30.5 cm by 30.5 cm (12 inches by 12 inches).



I had to choose a nudibranch because they are so spectacular looking, like a sea cucumber dressed for carnivale. There are some weird looking creatures in the ocean. When tasked with documenting what we see with a submersible ROV, we are often left with little option but to type 'critter' or even more vaguely 'life'. I can't help but recall an animated short I saw at the NFB with , 'Chloe the sea cucumber' which was in fact weirder than any critter I've seen yet.

Haeckel seems to have a Louis Riel thing going on. The print is based on a photo of him, clearly after doing field work, in 1866 (hence the posture, leaning on the table).

multimedia progress

I've been working on this for a long time now, and though it's still in progress, I thought I'd share my mediocre photos. It's hard to photograph, because of the reflectivity of the glass, and it's rather heavy, so I can't place it just anywhere. I made this with the group show in mind. She's in a submarine, looking out windows and thinking.



Most of the papers are Japanese washi, including all papers involved in block prints and chine collé, but the textured silver paper I bought in Amsterdam many years ago. Yes, I hoard paper, so what? I appropriated the old dials from our lab. I intend to wire up the LEDs and add a switch. There's a yellow LED in the anglerfish's lure, and a red one on one of the dials. She's painted in acrylic ink on water colour paper.