Do you ever create something and then turn around and see that someone else has already done it and done it better.  That's what happened with this Christmas card.  I'd just finished printing my cards when what to I see on Pinterest but a print by an artist I'd never heard of before; Sadao Watanabe.

His work is amazing!  I love this sixties stylizing aesthetic.  It reminds me a little of  Osborn and Woods or Sister Corita Kent.  Every time I find an artist with this style I go nuts!  I'm inspired to do better, but I'm not redoing my Christmas cards.  These will do for this year.

I also have a new studio companion.  I think she will fit in just fine : )

The Traveller is my latest reduction print.  I feel like things are finally coming together;  I'm much more familiar with the ways of my bottle jack press, my Caligo Safe Wash ink is behaving itself and I have been able to tear myself away from renovating.  The  thing about doing renovations yourself is that you are always seeing other little projects that need doing.  I have to ignore those projects because I'm not going to look back on my life and say, "I'm so glad I spent all that time fixing my soffits."

The Loon is a much more worthy preoccupation.  The Loon is a diver and water is a symbol of dreams and multiple states of consciousness.  No one who hears a loon cry on a misty lake can but be affected by this spirit of the north and feel that there is more to life than what we see on the surface.

I called this print "The Traveller" because of the little loon chick who rides on her mother's back.  We are all travellers in a way.  I kept thinking of this print as "Loon in the Lune".  Hahaha.  But it's not a "Lune",  it's the morning sun.  Which is good because "Loon in the Lune"  is a very silly name!

This print will soon be available in my Etsy store,  The Georgina Art Centre and hopefully the proof at Open Studio's Artist Proof sale.