Travesia Roadworks & Manna Gallery

In 2014 I was invited to participate in the San Francisco Center for the Book’s annual Roadworks event. Kathleen Burch, one of the directors of the center suggested that I consider designing the block with an artists’ book in mind. I chose 9 of my small square drawings to transfer to the 36” x 36” square linoleum block. I created 9 –12” quadrants to house each image. Once the images were drawn on the block, I focused on creating a unified image to avoid a grid like pattern. Having the underlying grid structure would make for an easy way to design the book pages in 12” sections without compromising the images. I took the opportunity to experiment with a variety of carving approaches throughout the block.

At the Roadworks event the block was inked up by an inking team. The block was then laid out on a pad over the street. A sheet of Reeves BFK was placed over the inked block. A beautiful antique steamroller from Willits, Ca rolled over the print in order to transfer the ink from the block to the paper.

After the event, I printed several copies of the Travesia print on my own. Once the prints were dry, I hand-colored the white areas with watercolors. Then came the task to design the book. I had a vague idea of how I wanted to proceed but it wasn’t till I started to deconstruct the print and began to make cutouts and overlay the pages that the book started to materialize. The resulting tunnel book Travesia (Italian for travel by sea) is 21” x 12” x 10”. Many of my drawings consist of boats, oars, and moons. The boats have come to represent the journeys we take in life. The following year I created a new 36” square print, Tierra de los Sueños. I followed a similar approach to the design and layout for another tunnel book. This time the imagery relates to the land and not the sea.