IMPLE GRAPHIC SHAPES are the essence of my woodcuts, and the mountains and rivers surrounding Aspen are full of these inspiring shapes. I work from drawings made in the field. Almost every afternoon I hike or Nordic ski, sometimes down to the Roaring Fork River (which runs near my studio through a steep canyon full of massive glacial erratics), or up one of the five valleys that lead to the Maroon Bells, Independence Pass, Ashcroft, and the high peaks of the Elk Mountain Range.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Woodcut is more like sculpture than painting. The technique is reductive, not additive. Instead of adding paint to a white canvas,

I start with a blackened, 1/2" birch veneer plywood panel. Birch is hard to cut (but its tight grain makes the effort worthwhile) so straight lines and simple shapes prevail. The uncut wood becomes the image.

 

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Each print is made up of 2 blocks and is run  through the press twice: first with black ink and second with blue ink. I print with oil-based ink on Japanese rice paper in an addition of 25.

 

—CURT CARPENTER December 2021