Friday, July 8, 2011

The Black Swan


Finally - the much grumped about Black Swan print is done, done, done and I'm going to deliver them to Barbara this evening.  Getting a decent photo or scan has been a problem, however.  Metallic paint just doesn't put its best foot forward in situations like this.  You will just have to take my word for it that these look a whole lot better in person. ;-)

I think most everyone nowadays knows what a black swan is, and it is not a swan that comes in black.  It is an incident that, although you may have planned for it, it far exceeds the scope of your planning and is devastating. That is how it was described to me.  I think that pretty much covers the quake, tsunami, and subsequent problems at the nuclear plant.  Some of the flowers are the radioactivity icon, though that may not be apparent to anyone but me.

Two blocks were printed, the red and black.  A gold block was cut, but I could not find a gold pigment that would print as bright as I wanted, so the gold leaves and swans were painted.  A tiny lino was cut for the stamen and pistils and printed in black and gold.


                                              
 
                                                           Earth quakes.  Tsunami. 
                                                    Suddenly, black swan:  flowers
                                                                 radioactive. 


(My apologies to all you poets...)

5 comments:

Amanda said...

Such a beautiful print!

Renee A. Ugrin said...

Well worth the wait! Beautiful print. Thank you for the black swan explanation--it adds to the wrench of it all. Very nice.

Annie B said...

Beautiful!

bdswagger said...

Beautiful print. I really like the symbolism of the piece. Were you ever able to chase down Mr. W?

I wanted to mention, next time you want to do gold on a print, you could consider using gold leaf and doing an old fashion illumination on it. Beautiful results and it should work on printing paper, I think.
Leigh P.

bdswagger said...

Beautiful print. I really love the symbolism of the piece. Did you ever chase down Mr. W?

Next time, try gold leaf, using gesso-old fashion illumination technique. It should work on printing paper, I think. And it would be gorgeous.