Living Off the Land
An ongoing personal series of woodcuts celebrating the native forageables of California.
Outside of art, one of my biggest passions is exploring the edible wildlife in the Bay Area—from berries, to mushrooms, to seaweed. Living Off the Land is my personal, ongoing collection of woodcut paintings to celebrate the many forageables of California! Each piece is centered around one of my favorite wild edibles. Through this series, I hope to inspire others to look for the magic that surrounds us in nature, and share some of the joy I've found in foraging and living off the land!
Key details
Dimensions
Individual pieces range from 5 x 7 in to 12 x 17.5 in
Medium and materials
Layered cuts of plywood, painted with acrylic gouache and finished with colored pencil
The process: from paper sketch to woodcut painting
For each piece, I start by creating loose thumbnail sketches in ink, and then I move to the computer to vectorize the outline of the woodcut. Once I have the outline vectorized, I use a laser cutter at my local makerspace to cut two pieces out of 3mm plywood—the front piece with the illustration outline, and a rectangle that acts as the "backing" of the piece.
Then comes my favorite step—painting! First, I seal the wood pieces to prevent them from absorbing moisture, then I prime them to prepare the plywood for painting. Finally, I paint each woodcut with acrylic gouache, and add tiny layering details on top with colored pencil. Then I attach the illustration panel to the backing panel. From start to finish, each piece takes me 10+ hours. It's definitely a labor of love!
