I am drawn to woodcut by the hands-on directness of the technique, by the long and rich history of the medium, and — most significantly — by its stark simplicity. In its most basic form the woodcut image has no middle tones; limited to black and white only, the woodcut print is capable of great expressive power.

I begin with a bare plank of wood on which I’ve painted in black a rough approximation of my final image. Using a knife and a gouge, I carve away any areas that I want to remain white in my print. The process of cutting the block is very much like "drawing" with a knife and a gouge. When I roll ink onto the block, the ink only touches those surfaces which have not been cut away. Next I place a sheet of Japanese paper face down over the inked wood and rub with a polished wooden spoon to transfer the ink to the paper. The resulting print is a reverse of the carved image. Since the image is permanently carved into the block, it is possible to print a number of images (an edition) from the same block.

(Note: For a full description of my woodcut process, check my article, "Fixing the Moment: From Sketch to Woodcut," in the June, 2002, issue of American Artist.)