Station of the Raven VIII:

Wise Cracker

 

When an easy meal like dropped French fries, landfill delight, or dog chow is not to be found, the raven, like some other birds, will go all out for a seafood dinner. Taking a mussel or clam for a flight into the sky, the raven drops the shellfish onto cement or rocks below. The same shell may need to be dropped repeatedly until it cracks and the bird swoops down to retrieve the meal inside.

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.