I started printing up my own Holiday cards in 1995, having been to design school but never taking a printmaking class I decided to teach myself how to print linocuts. I can't quite remember exactly what inspired me to work with linocuts other than the fact that I believed by using this medium I would be forced to work in a less detailed fashion than what I was used to doing with many other mediums including, graphite, pen and ink and acrylics. As you can see with time, I found a way to work around that perceived notion of a"less-detailed" medium.
Not knowing what the proper tools were in order to do an actual linocut, I bought a piece of wood-backed linoleum and when the time came to actually cut the image out, I grabbed what I was used to working with, an xacto-blade and got to work cutting out my first piece. That became the 2-color self-portrait holiday card I created while still living in Boston in 1995.
I continued to work like this until I moved to NYC the following year and just happened to meet Javier Cintron, a brilliant artist in his own right who at the time was working in the printmaking workshop of Bob Blackburn. Through Javier, I discovered that there were proper tools to cut linoleum with and places where they actually had printing presses to print editions out on. I'd sneak in when Javier was monitoring the shop and work on my own projects while observing the rest of the artists. Eventually when I became comfortable enough with the environment, I became a monitor and as part of the job, I was allowed to use the presses during my shifts.
As time passed, I was able to purchase my own medium-sized press and the rest is history. I'm pretty sure at this point I have a few hundred images printed up over the years.
The following prints represent the work I've created as Holiday cards as well as gift tags between 1995 and this week. I look back at the images and I'm amazed at just how personal and revealing they really are. Although the subject matter changes each year, they have all become self-portraits allowing a glimpse into my state of mind at the time of creation.
I hope you enjoy checking the images out and HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!!!
1995 - SELF PORTRAIT
1996
1997
1997 - GIFT TAGS
1998 - NEW YORK'S INFLUENCE (One Of My Favorites Too)
1998
1999 - (A BUSY PRINTMAKING YEAR)
1999 GIFT TAGS
2000
2001 ( A Very Sad Year Here In The City)
2002
2002 - GIFT TAGS
2003 - SANTA CLAWS
2004
2004 GIFT TAGS
2005 - BETHESDA FOUNTAIN / CENTRAL PARK (Image Part of "1-A-DAY" Series)
2006 - ROBOSANTA (Image Part Of "A FACE A DAY" Series)
2007 - HOLIDAY WHIRLING DERVISH
2008 ROBO-SNOWMAN
