Hello and welcome!

I am an illustrator/designer/artist who loves illustrating books, creating surface designs, and getting messy with a variety of materials. I make my work through a hybrid process of digital techniques and traditional printmaking. I am drawn to working with my hands to carve rubber blocks, mix ink, and print on paper, then scan the artwork to collage and color the prints digitally.

Experimentation and play are fundamental steps in making each piece, and I appreciate the imperfections and chance textures inherent in printmaking. The cyanotype process allows me to create photographic forms from nature and found objects and use them in new ways.

I am deeply inspired by the place I live - an urban boreal forest on a hill above the rocky North Shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota. The trees, leaves, animals, moss, lichen, and the ever-changing moods of the Great Lake inform and inspire the motifs in my work. Dreams, meditation, and the inner landscape also inspire me.

Please take a moment to visit my shop or contact me about a project. We can also connect on Instagram. I am currently available to work on commission-based illustration and design projects.

In 2008, I started HotHouse Design & Post, LLC., a graphic design and illustration studio where I provide logo design and visual communication services to my clients.

Process

I start by creating many thumbnails of possible compositions before creating the final line drawing to transfer to the rubber block. The images are carved backwards so they print as intended. I use several blades to carve away the rubber block to make a stamp. I carved 15 separate stamps for the image below to make the final composition. The prints were scanned and digitally composited into one image and then colored in Photoshop. Depending on the size of the image, the entire illustration can be carved in one stamp.

The blue image to the upper right was made using a different process - cyanotype. This alternative photographic technique uses chemicals painted on paper and objects or hand-drawn negatives placed on top of that and exposed to sunlight. The UV rays turn the exposed paper an indigo blue and the covered areas remain white.

The Queen Eats the Dark Flower, Cyanotype Illustration

Here is a very brief video showing the process of making a block-printed illustration. What is not shown is that the print is scanned after printing and colored digitally. There is no audio. :-)