As A Few Of My Friends Know,

I was apprenticed in the print trade for 5 years,

 so when I see engravers in this day and age it always fantasists me,

so I thought I would make a post about Valerie Lueth, who has made a print of a tree with intricately intertwined roots and branches to form a 4-color woodblock print titled ‘BRANCHING.’ 

Lueth, who owns and operates Tugboat Printshop in Pittsburgh, hand-illustrated one key block and three additional color blocks to combine black, yellow, blue, and grey in the formation of the tree,

to create the tree’s subtle shifts in tone and shape, Lueth first drew and carved the key block on 3/4 inch birch plywood, next, she transferred the image via press onto the three color blocks, and hand-drew and carved each of the three color blocks, 

finally, using very precise alignment, Lueth printed all four blocks sequentially on one sheet of paper to create the complete artwork,

the artist describes BRANCHING as “an image of generation and growth,” and it scales thirty inches tall and twelve inches wide, the print is currently available for pre-order on the Tugboat Printshop website, Lueth also shares her works in progress on Instagram, and no I am not on commission, I was just reminded of where I worked for 5 years, man and boy from 1966 to 1971.