Work in progress

Printing fallen poplar trees

by Haruko Okano

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I walk this one stretch of road that leads from the highway pass THARS into the Crag Lake subdivision. Just about every day I do this ritual walk and I noticed these poplar trees that have been felled. They are a beautiful texture and remind me of Madrona trees in BC.

I decided one day that I’d like to try printing directly from these trees and so began a process of laying out unbleached brown paper along the entire length of the prone tree then with water-based printing ink I began to take rubbings off of the exposed upper half of the tree. Now I have cleared space around 3 fallen poplars and am aiming at printing up to 12 tree prints. These will be used as one of the installations I want to make for the exhibition in November. This installation will either be laid on the floor or hung as part of a paper tree forest.

Method:
I trim off the upper branches, clean the surface of the tree then lay out the paper which has been moistened. I pat the paper into the texture of the bark and contour of the trunk. Then with a handmade pounce pad I begin at the tree base and begin taking rubbings working up to the tree top. After the print has dried I use a solution of white glue and water to strengthen the paper before rolling it up so there are no creases cutting the trunk into sections.

I intend to work further on these adding other components when I get back to my home studio.

Cesar – Toward Motion

(Click on four arrows to watch larger version)

Filmmaker Allan Code, of Nah Ho Productions kindly edited and shared some of his film footage of Cesar Damian, taken while Cesar was working on his migration project in the Yukon.

As Allan says Cesar reflects the fundamental joy and expressive power of motion.  Amazingly; he does it in a single frame.  With such passionate attention; what might we yet do with motion pictures and the stories we must tell?