Para Block 102

MEDIUM: Single layer Woodcut Relief Print on Linen
DIMENSIONS: 48″ x 96″
DESCRIPTION: In my series Para I've attempted to explore various realities created by choices I've made throughout my life. In my mind every choice made by myself has an infinite amount of possible outcome realities, but only one manifested by the choice I choose to make. Each print is an attempt of diving into these realities via the portal I've created in search of analysis, personal progression, and emotion. Each woodblock is made by selectively tracing the wood grain of a 4ft by 8ft sheet of plywood which has a continuous uninterrupted grain. I follow each line of the grain until it ends, disappears or merges into another and later carve the lines out with a corded power router tool and print the blocks on linen by hand. Each print is made from start to finish entirely by hand with the exception of the carving, the tracing of the block, the sealing of it, rolling it up with ink, and pressing it onto linen with a burnishing tool called a baren. The outcome of each print is only half of the work itself, the other half is the process of creating each print through a meditative printmaking practice that I use to analyze every aspect of this concept and its parallels.

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Aidan Johnson
College
British Columbia, Canada