Sinner & Saints
The world around us is filled with many things that we can not observe. People have their personal thoughts, unknown activities happen behind closed doors, contents of boxes remain undiscovered. The author Douglas Adams once wrote about this: SEPs, otherwise known as "someone else's problems." You can't observe them directly; you really need to take a different approach to see what surrounds us.
I needed to find a dynamic scene where the hidden could be exploit into a printed form. Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley provided a fertile ground on a introductory subject of identifying those that are good or evil. To be honest, I have no idea - nor is there any possible way - to gauge whether or not these folks are good/evil. I played [insert your favorite deity here] and chose roles based on the composition of the photograph. Really, we're both sinners and saints inside.
The first block is known as the keyblock: every block after this is based on this first one. Usually being the block that will print black lines in a print, I'm going to print it using light grey. I'm using black here so I can view the image better on the block and on the test prints.
The first print in black ink using the keyblock. This is the most highly detailed woodblock I've ever done. Not too large in size, registering at 6" x 12".
This second board will be the actual black ink keyblock. The first keyblock was to establish where all the elements will go. The black keyblock will be used for the detailed information around the characters of this print.
The concept of what is hidden is better illustrated in the above image. Only small sections will be colored to divulge the secret life of people. A black-inked print was used to establish where the final panels of color will go. Aside from the grey and black blocks, there will be twelve other colors. This will be more colors than I have used for a print before.