Hog Hammock -- Planning & Simplifying

     This may not be true for everyone, but I find that if I want to make anything I can be proud of I need quite a bit of planning to go into it. In relief printing, certainly, you need to consider exactly how you are going to portray you subject. I've found that linocuts have made me a better artist because they require me to plan and to simplify. My subject needs to be broken down into dark and light at the very least, and only a few colors at most. It requires me to examine my subject very closely and to chose how I am going to depict it with a very limited pallet. 

     "Posterized" images of the Beatles are a good example of this simplification (unfortunately, I couldn't find the artist or company that created this image, it's listed on a  wall paper site, but still a good example). Of course, it is easy to achieve this effect using software to modify photos, but it is valuable to be able to see things this way -- to boil them down to their essential values and lines. This skill is essential to a good artist. I find that it is very helpful to practice rendering scenes, or landscapes, or anything I'm planning as small value thumbnails before I begin a more detailed study. 

    Just because it's basic doesn't mean it is easy. I've just spent the last two hours sketching for my piece on Hog Hammock, and I'm still not completely satisfied. But, I think I've got a strong enough composition to press on, even if my sketch isn't as polished as I'd like it too be. Planning is important, yet I can say as a recovering perfectionist that if you get bogged down in perfectionism you will never finish anything, much less be satisfied with it. 

In Progress..... Hog Hammock

     Today I am hoping to start carving a plate for another print based on a visit I made to Sapelo Island a few summers ago. The Live Oak and the Moon was the first linocut I've done that I was satisfied with, and now I am in the planning stages for a lino of Hog Hammock, a unique community on the island -- the last true Geechee community on Georgia's barrier islands.

      Having meaningful subject matter -- whether it is meaningful because of the elements of design used, or the history of the subject, or the emotional content infused by the artist -- is the first step in making art that pulls the viewer in. At least, in my opinion, it's an important part. Hog Hammock is a vibrant community composed completely (according to what I have read) of the descendants of 400 slaves who lived on the island, supporting the lifestyle of the Spaldings, the plantation owners there (the ruins of the early Spalding house are pictured below). 

      Hopefully tomorrow I'll have something more concrete to show, and a little technique-oriented information.