She Oak: Women as Seeds of Change

In the fall of 2019 I received a call to Ohio women printmakers to submit work that celebrated women.  The Phoenix Rising Printmaking Cooperative in Columbus, Ohio was putting on a show entitled, "Ohio Printmakers: Celebrate Women" to honor the centennial of the 19th amendment.  I wanted to participate and knew I had to challenge myself to work that theme into my interest in printing botanical art. I eventually came up with the idea to create a seed pod made of women.

As I began an internet search for the perfectly shaped pod I narrowed it down to two or three and finally decided on one that had perfectly shaped nubs that I could transform into women.  When I looked at the name of the pod I saw that it was from a tree native to Australia from the genus Allocasuarina.  And I couldn’t believe it when I saw the common name was “She Oak”!  I took that amazing coincidence as a sign I had to do the print and after two months of meticulous carving I printed “She Oak: Women as Seed of Change.”

Each print was hand-burnished and printed using oil-based ink on cotton paper. Visit my blog, Nessy Designs,for further details about the process and more images.

Video

This video shows the carving process.

The video below shows me burnishing and pulling a print.

Two versions of the “She Oak”
are available for purchase. 

She Oak - Black and White

This is a one-color linocut print created using oil-based ink on cotton paper. This is a limited edition print.

Quantity: 0
Edition Size: 6
Dimensions: 30'' W x 22''H
Price: $350

She Oak: Hand-Tinted - SOLD OUT

This version of the print is the same as the print above with the addition of a hand-painted watercolor background. Each print is one-of-a-kind.

Quantity: 0
Edition Size: 6
Dimensions: 30''W x 22''H
Price: $450

* The "Black and White" and "Hand-Tinted" She Oak prints are part of a variable edition of 6.  Thus the number of "White Background" prints depends on the demand for "Hand-Tinted" prints.