This is my fifth New Year's linocut, which is like a woodcut but carved from a block of linoleum instead of wood. Besides a few proofs, forty copies were printed (hand inked and pressed by myself) and sent as 2005/2006 New Year's cards (which read inside "Happy Lunar New Year").
Normally I send the cards for the regular New Year but was so busy in December that the cards didn't get made until early January. Fortunately the lunar New Year (also known as Chinese New Year) was on January 29th this year. In the twelve year cycle the year 2006 is the year of the dog; note that the star at the far left lower side is Sirius, the dog star. And yes, the disk of the moon is twenty times larger than in reality (which is about the width of Orion's belt) so to all my astronomers friends I say, "Hey, it's art."
Finally, I have to thank Katie Gilmartin for teaching me how to print linocuts correctly. In past years I had to discard almost half of my cards because the image didn't print correctly. This year I printed a total of roughly 50 cards (see below) and easily had enough for the edition. If you're interested in block printing, contact her or visit her website.
