(Half) A Year of Block Printing

01 Wednesday Jul 2026

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I have made some sort of block print every day so far this year. It has been an interesting experiment and has led me to new ideas and improved my carving and printing skills. I’m kind of running out of steam, but I’m going to try to keep going. Here are some of my favorites from so far this year. I had to include my cat and a picture of my solo exhibit at University of Wisconsin Hospital.

Hospital Solo Exhibit and Finished 100 Day Project

19 Friday Jun 2026

Posted by in 100 Day Project, Art on Exhibit

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I have been too busy to post but I have so much to share! My solo exhibit is up at the Carbone Cancer Center at UW Hospital 600 Highland Drive in Madison, WI. This part is always open to the public. There is another section upstairs that is only open for viewing when the Center is open so stay tuned for photos from there. Having my art in the hospital is really a dream come true. I hope it provides some comfort or respite for people passing through.

I finished the 100 day project during which I made a block print every day for 100 days. I have actually been making a block print every day since the beginning of the year. I’m on day 169, almost halfway there!

Here are some close ups. The square ones are for the EcoSquared Show at Hatch Art House on Williamson Street next month.

Door County, Wisconsin Vacation

07 Sunday Jun 2026

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It has been quite a while since I have posted! I have been very busy! I dropped off all the art for my solo exhibit at the Carbone Cancer Center at the University of Wisconsin Hospital at 600 Highland Drive in Madison on April 28th. I was pretty worn out. And then I went on vacation on May 1 to one of my favorite places, Door County. It is the “thumb” on the misshaped mitten that is Wisconsin and it has so much natural beauty, art and cherries! I continued on with my 100 day project of making a block print every day while I was there with a travel kit I have posted about back in March. Here are some of the block prints I made while I was there.

The center photo was taken at Roots Inn and Restaurant in Sister Bay, the B and B we stayed at while we were there. Collin made these adorable and delicious little scones for us every morning as an appetizer for a fantastic hot breakfast every morning. He was a lawyer in his previous life and has state statue books around the place for decor. I traded him some pages from a really old one for a piece of art on one of the pages. That is the picture on the right. I had a few simple square blocks that I could print in different configurations and sometimes I added some Zentangling. I don’t do well with daylight due to an extreme UVA sensitivity that triggers my Sjogren’s autoimmune disease so it was nice to have something to work on during peak daylight hours at our B and B or a coffee shop.

That sensitivity has made me appreciate sunset walks even more than I did before. We also went for a very brief moonlight walk but it was too dark and dangerous! We had a few days with really lovely weather and I was able to get some photos that make me very happy.

We did a lot more exploring and on the days with wetter weather we checked out art galleries.

New Art Available on Fine Art America and Upcoming Art Journaling Class

18 Saturday Apr 2026

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I have 5 new pieces of art available on Fine Art America. This is a print on demand site and you can get my art printed on a wide variety of items, from canvas, to phone cases, to mugs! Here are the new pieces. I have added quite a few of my other new pieces this year and it is definitely worth checking out. I have a number of people who have gifted puzzles of my work to friends and family for the holidays with very positive responses.

I also have a class at the Art Hub in Cambridge, Wisconsin on April 25 on making an art journal out of paper bags. It is super fun and I have posted about the ones I have made for different series I have created. It costs $86 and you will leave with a new art journal. Register here.

I’m almost ready for my solo exhibit at the Carbone Cancer Center at University of Wisconsin Hospital that will run from April 28th through July 28.

Wishing you moments of peace and beauty today and everyday.

Rabbit Holes, Organization, and Victorian Puzzle Purses

06 Monday Apr 2026

Posted by in 100 Day Project, 365 Days of Block Printing, Art

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I am on day 95 on my journey to make a block print of some kind every day this year. I am also on day 43 of the 100 day project Instagram challenge. Some surprising insights are the amount of mess I have been making without taking time to tidy up and the frequency of tangents I go off on. Both of these discoveries are creating a growing urgency in me to get my works in progress organized. But first I have to get everything ready for my solo show that is being installed on April 28th. I have figured out what pieces I want to include and a few that I still want to finish. Then I have to get everything into the Artist Archive program that I have started using to get my inventory organized. It helps me keep track of what is where at any given time and is fantastic for getting ready for a solo show. I will be able to print out labels and all the paperwork I need so easily. Once everything is entered. I am waiting for a few pieces that are getting scanned and framed. I’m getting there.

I have created new sets of blocks for my small torus mandala prints and some new square blocks, too. I am going to use some of the mandalas in the UW Hospital show at the end of month and the squares are some of the rabbit holes I have been exploring. I keep putting the squares aside to finish everything for the show, but they have some heavy gravity for me right now! The reasons for the square blocks are a traveling block printing kit I am assembling for a trip planned at the beginning of May and for Victorian Puzzle Purses. Back in March I posted about the travel kit and occasionally I think of a new block to supplement the kit and I love this larger, combined block and now I want to make them in lots of sizes.

I was starting to lose or damage things so I did a good tidy of my work space and only moved one small pile to another table. And then there were the Victorian Puzzle Purses! I don’t remember where I first saw them but I have watched so many videos on YouTube and Instagram and I am thrilled with the blocks I have carved so far. I do keep making them so I don’t forget the folds, but no more designing for them until the show is up!

I have been playing around with stitching and block printing increasingly this year. Here are some early paper stitching projects. I’m going to take an exciting Sashiko class in Door County later this summer and I am struggling to hold off on these until after the show is ready. It is actually really exciting to see a body of work come together. I’m writing positive songs, poems and meditations in the background of most of them because I need to balance the energy of the protests and rage about what is happening with peace and beauty where I can.

Peace

Collage Packs Now Available and New Solo Exhibit

23 Monday Mar 2026

Posted by in Art, Art on Exhibit

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The Art Hub in Cambridge, WI has a new product available. I have collected 40-50 papers into sets that can be used for art journaling and collage. They include a mix of gelli printed papers of all kinds, book pages, antique papers from magazines, sheet music and ledgers, security envelopes, book pages used as paint pallets, commercial and hand painted tissue papers, block printed papers and more. They are only available in person at the gallery at this point.

I have also been invited to have a solo exhibit at the UW Hospital Carbone Cancer Center in Madison, WI. It will be up from April 29 – July 27 this year. The exhibit spaces are open for guests to view. The J3/1 area of this space (on the first floor) does have limited hours from M-F 7:30am-5pm. The portion of the exhibit on the 2nd floor (J3/2) is located in a public accessible area and is therefore open 24/7, though the best time to visit is during visiting hours 8am -9pm. There will not be a reception for this exhibit. Having my art in medical spaces is one of my highest goals and comes from the many hours I have spent waiting and looking at art that did not engage me when I was in very difficult situations. I hope that my art will engage patients and their families and provide them with moments of peace. I am getting some new pieces framed for this exhibit.

Daily Art Practice

04 Wednesday Mar 2026

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My daily block printing art practice is going very well with 2 months of printing and posting them on Instagram. I am continuing to print single pages of tessellating torus mandala blocks on old book/magazine pages. I’m playing with black and brown on the aged papers with lovely results. I came across this pink gelli printed book page and printed my spectacles block in pink and black and I played around with varying sizes of square blocks in a variety of colors on a scrap of paper from a large mandala.

I have a trip coming up in May and I have been putting together a travel printing/art kit to take with me. I recently went to a one day mediation retreat and took my kit to give it a trial run. The “Love” print got a Zentangle treatment and turned out nicely. The little sketchbook is new and I am very happy with the paper. The ink didn’t bleed through and it took shading well. I decided I needed blocks that I could layer and play with a lot of different combinations so I created a bunch of one inch squares that are super fun to play with! And I played!

Have you noticed that I have a tendency to play and experiment? Another series of experiments I am working on is combining watercolor with my block prints in a really mindful way. This is bringing me lot of joy and I hope it cheers you up as well.

Grids keep appearing in my art journals. The square blocks I carved in December work so well on them and creating a master sheet that looks like a hot mess then comes together in something beautiful is a metaphor I really need these days. This is a new junk journal I made recently using a wide variety of papers in a cereal box cover.

100 Day Project and Upcoming Zentangle Class

24 Tuesday Feb 2026

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Today is day 2 of the 100 day project. I have started off printing on very old papers. I love the November 1878 issue of Demorest’s Monthly Magazine. I’m also printing on pages from an old dictionary and a geography book from 1901.

“The 100 Day Project is a free, global art project built around one simple idea: show up to your creative practice every day for 100 days. Anyone can participate! Subscribe to receive updates and daily creative prompts.”

Since I am doing a 365 day project this year I am absorbing the 100 day project into it. There is a sense of community that helps maintain enthusiasm for a longer project. I still have lots of ideas for my 365 day project and am going strong. I will do a blog post about February in the beginning of March. For today I just wanted to share my first 2 days of the 100 day project.

I am teaching a Zentangle class at the Art Hub in Cambridge, WI on Friday, March 20th. Register here. We will use the pattern called “C Knots” as the focal point for our piece. Here is an example

Block Printing Every Day

05 Thursday Feb 2026

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So this is my goal for 2026. It is an ambitious one but I’m going to be gentle with myself about it. It is aspirational but I got a great start in January!

I’m having lots of fun exploring the blocks I carved in December and older blocks as well. I have even carved a few new ones, some of them inspired by the Zentangle Fragments of Your Imagination January challenge. I love to use Zentangle patterns as inspiration for my blocks. This one is my favorite.

I used a block printed mandala using some of these Zentangle fragment blocks as the pattern for a screen printing class I took at Polka Press and here’s some napkins and tshirts that are the result!

I printed a cover for the paper bag art journal I used to capture my Carve December work.

Here are individual photos of some of my favorites.

Making art is a form of self care for me. I think it is also a form of resistance against evils such as fascism. I’m surrounding Minneapolis with Love & Love & Love. Let’s make something beautiful today.