Old World Lore

 

Featured in legends across the globe, the raven has captured the imagination of people from many cultures. Five raven stories are depicted in this station:

 

In German mythology, the one-eyed god Odin had two ravens who sat on his shoulders. Each day, Odin sent the ravens, Hugin and Munin, out to circumnavigate the earth and report back to him with their observations. The central circle in station V represents this earth, night and day.

 

The Viking ship represents Norwegian explorers who used the raven as a navigation tool. The explorer Floki had three ravens on board his ship when he embarked on the voyage which led to the discovery of Iceland. 

 

Edgar Allen Poe’s literary raven croaks from his perch atop the bust of Pallus.

 

The raven flies on the flag of Danish warriors who believed that they would be victorious in battle if the raven flew. 

 

Finally, in Northwest coast legends, where raven is trickster and creator, it was Fog Woman who gave salmon to the raven.

Hand-painted linocut

13 x 9.5 inches

Edition of 200

 

Sizes listed are of the linocut images themselves; I leave an additional white border of paper on all sides.

 

My linocuts are printed on cotton rag paper the old-fashioned way: I carve with knives and gouges to create my imagery in slabs of linoleum. Then I roll ink over the surface, lay cotton paper on top, and crank the block through my etching press. I repeat this process for each impression in the edition, which means: If an image is in an edition of 40, I do this 40 times! After the prints dry, I generally hand-paint them, often with many layers of color, making each print a unique work of art.