A Bellowing of Bullfinches

How could I resist a "bellowing" of bullfinches? We don't actually have bullfinches (Pyrrhula pyrrhula) here in North America, apart from the odd, very lost, Eurasian stray. We do have many other types of finches, and living next to such a huge park, we get them regularly in the back yard. Without first hand knowledge, I had to wonder, are they loud? Do they bellow? Perhaps the "bellowing" is an allusion to the 'bull' in 'bullfinch'. So, I hunted down a surprising number of YouTube videos of a bellowing of bullfinches. They do not appear shy. They do like to sing. I listened to their songs and hear triplets and short strings (tuplets) of likely irrational eighth and sixteenth notes. So, I tried to illustrate my bellowing of bullfinches bellowing their songs in this fashion.



The males are the flashy pinkish-orange breasted birds and the females are the dun colour. You know how the males like to dress to impress.

The typography is designed to match the words. The letters of 'Bellowing' ("to make the loud deep hollow sound characteristic of a bull") are hollow and capitalized. The serifs on the 'B'of bullfinch are evocative of tail feathers. The letters are cursive and organic to suit the birds.

Year of the Dragon

For those on this side of the Pacific, and more specifically, here in Toronto (and elsewhere in Ontario), you can see a great, international collection of prints celebrating the Year of the Dragon, including my linocut above. Venues include: PROOF Studio Gallery (Distillery District, Toronto),OCADU (Ontario College of Art & Design University), Ottawa School of Art and Muskoka Art Place Gallery. The exhibit will premier at PROOF, January 26 - February 12, 2012, with the Opening 2-5 PM, Saturday January 28!

PROOF Studio Gallery, Studio 104, Case Goods Warehouse, Bldg. 74,
55 Mill Street, Distillery District Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5A 3C4
phone: 416 504 6761

If you are a printmaker, they will accept submissions up to January 25th so there is still some time to get involved.

Let me be the first to wish you 'Gung hee fatt choi, fung bao diu loi' ("Congratulations and be prosperous, now give me a red envelope!" ;)

Mini Print International - Asia Pacific

I've just realized that I was selected as an Exhibition Finalist for the Mini Print International - Asia Pacific! I created the Winged Walrus specifically, with this exhibit in mind, but submited other "mini prints" (10 cm by 10 cm print area - roughly 4 inches square for Imperial unit hold-outs - on 18 cm by 18 cm paper). The others are the Hand-Held Harpy, T. Rex with Flowers and The Bumblebee. You can find information on their planned exhibits on their Mini Print International - Asia Pacific Facebook page. They had to move to a larger venue and are planning the Mini Print International Awards and exhibit at Melbourne's premiere contemporary exhibition space No Vacancy Gallery (QV) April 2-16th, 2012. They plan later dates in Sydney and Hong Kong.

All finalists will receive catalogues of the exhibit, but if anyone happens to be in Melbourne, I'd love to see photos of the work in the gallery (and the same is true of subsequent exhibits in Sydney and Hong Kong - I'll update you here about future venues).

An Obstinacy of Buffalo

The collective noun for a group of buffalo is an "obstinacy". Clearly, these are hard-headed beasts. These ones have drawn a line in the sand. I dare you to cross it. Technically, these are American bison (Bison bison), known colloquially in North America as 'buffalo'. These mighty beasts were once ubiquitous across the Great Plains. Despite the worst efforts of the colonists, they have not been exterminated, and many obstinacies obstinately remain. The nature of the typography reflects the words: black, thick, solid, conservative and capitalized 'OBSTINACY' and 'Buffalo' with letters adorned with horn-like serifs. These linoleum block printed bisons are printed in slightly variable chocolate brown and black ink with dark gold ink grass, and brown, gold and black letters on Japanese kozo, or mulberry paper. Each print is 12.5" by 8" or 31.7 cm by 20.3 cm in dimension. There are 6 prints in the edition.

Happy Birthday Faunalia!

Have a great day to launch your best year yet!

p.s. see you soon!

p.p.s. original lino block print 4.5" square (11.4 cm square), showing books with a favorite quotation by F's father

Bumblebee on the front page

Last night, my bumblebee mini linocut was on Etsy's front page! It's a great little treasury:



How much do I love that badger? The lightbox got me thinking. Most of the artists were on my favorites list before I saw the treasury.

A Crash of Rhinos

I've always loved terms of venery. My copy of An Exaltation of Larks (by James Lipton) is jokingly subtitled or, The Venereal Game. The terms of venery are those weird collective nouns, sometimes evocative, sometimes odd and obscure, for groups of animals (and other things). Like, "a crash of rhinoceri" or "an exaltation of larks" or "a murder of crows".

This linocut shows a crash of rhinos in all senses of the words. Though would one really need multiple rhino before a "crash" would be a good description? Luckily, my crash of rhino are all on paper. These three are all headed for collision. The typography of the words represents their meaning; "crash" appears to implode and the stout letters of "Rhinos" are adorned with horn-like serifs.

I considered the various versions of the name of the beast and its plural. Apparently, all of the following are acceptable: several rhino, rhinoceros, rhinos, rhinoceroses, or rhinoceri. I prefer the elegance of rhinoceri over the absurdity of rhinoceroses (say that out loud five times fast), but decided that "rhinos" has the advantage of being pithy and obviously plural.



These linoleum block printed rhinoceri are printed in dark gold ink with gold and turquoise words on Japanese kozo, or mulberry paper. Each print is 12.5" by 10" or 31.7 cm by 25.4 cm in dimension. There are 6 prints in the edition.

This is the first of a new series.