2005 Nevada Governor's Art Awards Commission

Click on each block to see full size

I was very proud to be awarded the Nevada Arts Council’s Governor’s Arts Award Visual Arts Commission. The commission called for the creation of six pieces of artwork to be given to the recipients of the 25th Annual Governor's Art Awards in a ceremony in Reno on Tuesday, April 5, 2005. The proposal guidelines called to thematically tie the artwork to the Nevada landscape, its people or history. What follows is my version of a diary of how I approached the project, some written and visual "sketches" of a couple of excursions that I took to get inspired, and, of course, notes on the chosen subjects and photos of the project itself.
The prints are finished! Click on Prints below to see them displayed alongside the blocks.

My proposal:
Nevada’s history is fraught with tales of toughness and perseverance, but also of ongoing growth. Perhaps this process and history are best illustrated by the Mojave Desert’s rugged trees. Among them are the pinyon pine, the first tree adopted as our symbol and a giver of life to our native inhabitants; the white pine and the bristlecone, another of Nevada’s symbols, found in some of the most seemingly uninhabitable landscapes and illustrative of longevity and perseverance; the Joshua tree, a living symbol of survival and the Mojave’s cherished landmark; the desert willow splashing the landscape with delicate flowers and telling the traveler of hidden springs.

Like our state, the woodcut process is rugged and simple in appearance but representative of the time and intricacy that is required to tame the raw materials. The represented trees themselves yield the wood and the plants yield the fiber that makes the paper that makes the artwork possible.

Click on the links below to view the various aspects of the project.

Seeking Inspiration	How I Work	"My" Papermaker & the Prints
White Pine	Spanish Bayonet	Pinyon Pine
Joshua Tree	Bristlecone Pine	Mojave Willow