Molly Hashimoto

Over the Rainbow

Later this season Pomegranate Communications will publish this print as a small notecard. I titled it Mountain Bluebird and I used the same method to create it that I employed on the Goldfinches print, a printmaking technique I wrote about for the Daniel Smith Artists' Materials catalog. I was inspired by the many mountain bluebirds I've seen in Yellowstone National Park--often flocks of them perch and fly near us when we have hiked at Specimen Ridge. I perched my bluebird on a pine branch at the foot of the mountains just inside the Park near Gardiner, Montana. I've always loved E.Y. Harburg's lyrics for the movie The Wizard of Oz. So many of the songs are funny and witty and perfect. And others are just beautiful, like Somehwere Over the Rainbow.   Somewhere over the rainbow/Bluebirds fly. Yellowstone, and the other amazing places that are national parks have often seemed to me to be the places "over the rainbow." 

Daniel Smith Catalog Cover: Block Prints & Watercolor

   
 Daniel Smith Artist Materials just published their summer 2011 catalog, and I was really honored to have my art chosen for the cover.  If you'd like to learn more about how I created this art, just check out the Daniel Smith link here. I wrote a short article for them several months ago about it, and taught a class back in January at their Seattle store. I featured the work of my students on my blog, which you may enjoy taking a look at.

Daniel Smith Demo: Block Prints & Watercolor

On Sunday, October 31st I will be giving a free demonstration at Daniel Smith Artist Materials in Seattle at 12 and at 2 pm. I will show how I create my initial design, transfer to Safety-Kut, ink the carved block, and then tint with watercolor. I plan to have some small blocks available for people to try out; last year when I did the demo on a printmaking day at the store, customers had alot of fun experimenting with the medium. Though I consider myself primarily a watercolor artist, I have learned quite a bit from printmaking; I think all the work in printmaking has really improved my design abilities, and that adds up to better painting.
  

Bighorn Ram Woodcut

 

This ram's head is a work in progress and I expect to try out a few more colors before declaring myself satisfied with this woodblock print. I started with one of my favorite photos taken in Yellowstone in May and decided on a 3 color print. I transferred the drawing to the woodblocks and started carving. I've been working on it in small increments over the past few weeks. 

The rams were among my favorite sights at Yellowstone last month. According to the Spring 2010 article Cliff Dwellers in the Yellowstone Discovery magazine by Michael Leach of the Yellowstone Association, the bighorn sheep population trend in the Park is upwards and the most recent count is 335. Fire suppression was not good for the sheep, as they require ample grassland for forage, and open habitat so they can detect predators. When naturalist/artist Ernest Thompson Seton visited the Park in 1898 the population was estimated at no more than 150 and he spent months in the northern range without seeing a single sheep.  I feel very grateful for the Park planning and restoration that allowed for my wildlife sightings.

Old Faithful Block Print

 Old Faithful is a favorite of visitors to Yellowstone National Park, and I have wanted to do something to capture its astonishing power for a long time.  In studying artists who painted in the national parks, I discovered a large body of work done by illustrators, some anonymous,  to promote rail travel to Yellowstone--of course Old Faithful was frequently the subject.  I decided to take off from their work for my print and employ a version of the letterform Neuland, created by Rudolf Koch, giving this print the feel of something historical.

I am looking forward to the September workshop I will be teaching for the Yellowstone Association Institute. Read more about it on my classes page, or go directly to the Institute's link. 

Woodblock Print: Swans

 I saw these beautiful swans last spring at the Union Bay Natural Area in Seattle, and photographed and sketched them. A friend suggested that they might make a good block print with their strong whites against the dark water. I had alot of fun carving this block and kept it small: 5" X 7". It went so much faster than the Yellowstone bison print I labored over for months. It helped to only have 2 colors, the blue and the black.  

This is the first in an edition of 25, medium: printing inks on Magnani Pescia Paper.

Price: $65

Sibelius called his 5th Symphony his "swan hymn." He wrote: Nothing in the whole world affects me--nothing in art, literature, or music--in the same way as do these swans and cranes and wild geese. Their voices and being.

Yellowstone Bison Woodblock Print

 I printed this on Magnani Pescia gray printmaking paper using white, brown and black water soluble inks. I have taken countless photos of bison at Yellowstone, and I really love the sculptural quality of their forms--I think this is about the 6th image I have created from the photos I took.  At the moment I am working on a 5 color print.  I began it way back in October, and am amazed at the length of time this is taking, as my primary medium is watercolor, which can be painted really quickly.  I do like the meditative quality of carving, and also the handling of a three dimensional object. I have talked to several printmakers who say they like their wood blocks better than their completed prints, and wish they could frame the blocks!

Title: Yellowstone Bison

Medium: Rainbow rolled ink on gray Magnani Pescia paper

Price: $50

I understand that--I really like the woodgrain on this block and wish it could reveal itself better on the print. I used Japanese shina plywood and moku hanga carving tools, a knife and a u-gouge, all ordered from McClain's Printmaking Supplies.