Turbulent Flow

Turbulent Flow symbolizes the natural world and humanity colliding. A plane dwarfs the landscape, blotting out a murmuration of birds. I render the aircraft with minimal detail and at a three-quarter profile. The plane can be viewed advancing towards the viewer with the cockpit and wings preceding the tail, or conversely, the plane recedes into space with the tail and wings preceding the cockpit.

This piece began as a simple sketch, which I enlarged and transferred onto plywood with carbon paper. I used pen and ink, a ballpoint pen, and a Sharpie to solidify the composition. Then, I carved away the drawing’s negative spaces using chisels made in Japan. The tools vary in size: some carve hair-thin lines, while other gouges remove large swaths of wood.

I used a separate piece of cherry plywood to print each color layer. First, a red-to-grey transition was printed for the background. Then, the birds, mountains, and clouds were overprinted in brown. I cut out the design’s center and inked it separately as a gradient. The biggest challenge was ensuring separate blocks aligned when printed on an etching press. I used a special jig to align each woodblock for printing.