I've been working on something really big.... 250 miles, actually! That's how long the Yampa River is, from the Flat Tops mountain range to the confluence with the Green River in Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado. The Friends of the Yampa is a non-profit organization that supports the environmental and recreational integrety of the river, and they asked me to create a mural that features the Yampa River- beginning to end. To help me work through the design, I decided to scale the mural way down and create a 1/2 inch to 1 foot drawing. Next, I turned that into a 35 inch long carved, printed and painted linocut. Now I have both a mural design, and a new edition of original prints.
Each of these linocuts is printed by hand with brown oil-based ink, and then painted with gouache which is very similar to watercolor. They are numbered and the first three prints have been donated to the Friends of the Yampa to help with fundraising for the mural. I'm continuing to work on this project and as I make progress, I will share updates here and on Instagram. If you'd like to help and donate to the mural, contact Friends of the Yampa. If you'd like to help me with mural painting, let me know!
There is a really nice article about the mural project in the Steamboat Pilot and Today.