Octopus/Cohen print

I’ve just completed this new edition of woodcut prints with an image of an octopus paired with a line from one of Leonard Cohen’s songs, “Anthem”. This print was made for Holland Editions, a year-long print collaboration in which 12 artists from around the U.S. teamed up to create a limited edition of original prints to benefit the Holland Project, an all-ages music venue in Reno, Nevada. The prints are available through subscription, and subscriptions are $240 for an entire year - 12 prints over 12 months by 12 artists. The first print came available in October 2009, and mine is the featured print for June 2010. The print measures 11” x 16” and was printed from an original woodcut and hand-set metal type on handmade paper stained with walnut dye.

To subscribe to the Holland Editions, or if you have questions about the Holland Project, contact Megan Berner at meganberner [at] gmail.com.

A fan of Fanaticon

Yesterday I exhibited/vended at Fanaticon, Asheville's first comic con, and really had a great time! I've gone to a few comic cons in the past few years, but this was my first time showing and selling my own work, so I was a little nervous at first but people there turned out to be super nice and friendly. I shared the table with partner-in-crime LuckyCreature, and we took turns watching the table and running around to see everything else there. We were lucky to have a good location, and we could even see the music acts out in the courtyard without leaving our table unattended. The turnout was wayyy more than I'd expected, and such an incredible mix of people - all ages, girls and guys, normal-ish to very weird. Definitely not the same crowd I've gotten used to seeing at other comic cons in the past few years! I'm inspired by other local artists I met there, reminded of how much I love making comics and zines, and definitely planning on being there again next year! Some of my favorites: Comic Envy, Rice Boy, Deaver Park Press, Hope Larson, and Wide Awake Press.

Finding my way home

In the past ten years, I've moved 5 times. Before that, another 8 times or so, starting with the big move from Taichung, Taiwan to Cary, North Carolina when I was nine (actually, we moved a few times while living in the city of Taipei, then to Taichung, *then* to the States). I always thought that I would one day go home, to Taiwan, even as my memory of it and my ability to speak Chinese faded. When I finally went back to visit in 2001, it was a foreign place to me, nothing like the homecoming I was expecting to experience. I found myself in a slightly uncomfortable state of having no roots; not sure of where to plant my feet. I guess that explains the constant moving.

A few years ago, I took a printmaking workshop where I learned how to "pressure print" using a Vandercook press. This was in Iowa City IA, one of my many temporary homes. Just playing around with cut papers, I made this print, among many others:

A few years have passed, and now I find myself in the position of teaching this process at  a community print shop here in Asheville, North Carolina. The other night, I pulled out this very print to show as an example, and one of the students said, "Well, that looks just like the Blue Ridge Parkway." I'd made it , of course, years before moving here, and long before the thought of moving here had even crossed my mind. Two days ago, Scott and I spent the day driving on the Parkway, stopping to visit a few small towns along the way: Cherokee, Sylva, Waynesville. Something about this place just feels right, and every now and then I get the feeling that I may have found my way home.