Prints of “The Living Tree” Are Available for Sale

at the BaumWerk Etsy StoreDear friends,  I thank you for all of your kind words and interest regarding this new print of the Living Tree.  I am grateful that it seems to have struck a chord with many of you.  A number of you have made inquiries into when and if prints would be available to purchase.  As of Friday, a limited number (there will be more as I continue to print the edition) have been listed on my ETSY store.  I am selling these first fifteen for $125, after that the price will increase to $150.  Click here to go to the listing.   Please read more below for some details about the print, and thank you again for your support!

The image itself is 12″ wide and 22 1/2″ tall and is printed on French’s 100# Butcher Off White Dur-o-tone paper, which is 18″ wide and 25″ tall.  French’s paper is American made in Niles Michigan.The edition will be 1oo prints, which is the biggest edition I have ever made.  Every single print is hand made by me on my Wepplo etching press in my Rose Hill, Kansas workshop. The print is made using three linoleum blocks, as a composite image.  It took me over a year to design and carve the image into the blocks (although I was doing lots of other things during that year, besides carving linoleum).Many hours of painstaking carving went into creating all of the details in The Living Tree.The Tree and it’s roots are loaded with life, like this little owl. There are many spiritual and natural beliefs and dreams symbolically represented in this print.  There are many things which I see and believe about who my God is, and also things which I strive to cultivate in my life and stewardship on the land.  I don’t have many words as a companion for this image just yet, but perhaps in the future I may try to lay out those ideas for those who are interested.

This Dirt Is Older Than I, or Elizabeth Duffy’s Witness

Nigh on two years ago I received an email from Elizabeth Duffy, a writer from Indiana, wanting to ask me a few questions about my art for her blog at Patheos.  She sent questions and I sent back my answers.  It went on for three or four months like that, and trust was built.  In the end she shared our interview in four parts on her blog.  Meanwhile Elizabeth felt the fruit of our dialogue merited a wider audience, and she went in quest.  Image Journal took the bet, and Elizabeth went to work.

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I owe a debt to Elizabeth, but not necessarily for publishing an article about me in a magazine, although, that too is cool, and I expect that the measure of artistic validation it lends me is not insignificant.  It is for her time and her witness that I am grateful, it is for her trustworthiness.  I suspect most artists wonder, like me, if all the labor and turmoil that goes into making art, which purports to have emerged from a deep place in the created heart, is not the dead end of futility that it so often seems to be.  I know at least that it matters to Elizabeth, so much so that she built a soap box and voiced it to as large an audience as she could muster.  More sacred, she proved her trust with those treasures in my heart which I was able to share with her.  That carries weight.  Thank you Elizabeth.  You came along side me and we plowed together.  We even made the cover.

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You can read the article online if you wish, or even buy the whole journal it here.

With genuine authenticity (I know it’s redundant) and authentic hunger, Elizabeth writes for a variety of different outlets, including Image Journal’s blog, Good Letters.   The best place to start and catch most of it, is at her personal blog.

Provision

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I have been printing an edition of Flying Fish, a copper-plate engraving about the miracle of provision experienced by Thor Heyerdahl and his crew in the Pacific Ocean on their balsa log raft, the Kon Tiki.  This print is for sale at the Baumwerk Etsy store.

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…a Walking Man drawing for my friend Steven.

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“Rootrill” I hope that you will forgive me for posting an eleven minute song in the twenty first century.  Mostly, I hope that you enjoy it.

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arc contain glow

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seen through scene

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bois d arc meteorite

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slanting even evening light

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ancient bone star dust

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deere ghost sheep goat add straw and mix well

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cross turn

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years unfurl in the eternal present

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young hands dextrous

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core sample of stored solar energy

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made vacant for gold

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quince roots herbs leg

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reamed tapered tapped turned twisted sunk fitted formed around

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concentrate earth line essence

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absorb the sun and use it for life

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pull transfer motion

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dividing even unto cambium and xylem

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layers and layers

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learn purpose practicing discipline

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stop motion

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frozen movement osage root as it once reached

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three forms of light

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hand in hand you who once swayed

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ancient releasing story

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the turning of light upon the solar bank countless voices scratch and turn

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golden hands once full wait for wisdom

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new moon forest window

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tall down cut stack turn stack down

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erth-maker here we bend here we grow

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establish converge into order dust scratcher

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welcome the new bird and fare thee well

Onforan

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Prairie Creek Dining Table in white oak and black walnut.

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Red Elm window sill and shelf moving from rough to smooth.

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and being joined longways.

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Obed Edom is getting his finishing touches.

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A test print is pulled to see what needs adjusting.

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John Beartrist Laceroot is stirring.

Afore and Behind13Jonas is free from his box and wondering if it could be time to tell his story again.

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Clive Hicks Jenkins has posted the second part of an interview with me about The School of the Transfer of Energy Puppet Theater here.  Thank you Clive.

 

A Vessel, Strange and Unknown Finds Walking Man

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A vessel from the earth, strange and unknown, baring forth both blood and fire, finds Walking Man

 When You Spoke, guitar, accordion, banjo, and voice.

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