Desert Ocean

Woodcut, 2025

Hand-pulled relief print
Black ink on white paper
Signed, dated, and stamped with artist's chop

Image size: 9" x 12"
Paper size: 12" x 16"

Edition Size: 40
Unframed

DESCRIPTION
Desert Ocean refuses to say what you are looking at. Made entirely of parallel cuts — vertical above the horizon, horizontal below — it has no outlines, no crosshatching, no tonal shading. Some clearly see a distant chain of islands among a sweep of gentle waves; others distinctly envision pyramidal peaks bordering a wind-swept desert plain. Where some see a foreground of boulders, others see a reef and pools at low tide. The print doesn't settle any of it. Whichever landscape you arrive with is the one you'll see. And you are allowed to change your mind.

STUDIO NOTE
Desert Ocean owes an obvious debt to M.C. Escher's earliest geometric woodcuts.