Book of Names
03 — printmaking
Book of Names
My interest in identity, portraiture, and medium most recently culminated in the production of a book, titled The Book of Names. Five people are the focus of this book; I interviewed these people and gathered their stories on how they got their names, and subsequently designed a series of one spread stories, coupled with a woodblock print portrait that I did of them. The portraits were done by the same process as the woodblock prints in “Portraits in Wood and Ink,” where an engraving knife was used to lightly etch lines into the surface of a woodblock, going with the grain.
8.5x6.5 inches, on Reeves BFK and Gampi paper.
Each story was a poignant and personal attestation to the experiences that shape people’s identities, even if they were not necessarily the product of his or her own choices. These accounts represented a varied and diverse group of people, yet each story came together to form a shared experience of finding meaning and relevance within oneself.
