Bird drawings and linocut

journal page and Howard Nemerov poem


The swallows have been coming by lately with their fledglings and that inspired me to draw some birds, read poetry and start a new letter series. The Howard Nemerov, Blue Swallows, is from a book I have with collected poems on birds: On Wings of Song. The poem in my journal begins with the word Across and reads to the right, clockwise. The last paragraph of the poem begins with O Swallows.

bird sketch 
bird sketch


Based on my journal drawing, I decided to do a linocut and the journal drawing morphed into different line drawings which morphed once more on my Lino block.

bird linocut

The linocut bird puts a smile on my face every time I see it. I'll have this linocut listed soon. In the meantime, the above linocut will be included in my new letter series until what I've printed runs out.

In the past, I have put all my thoughts into zines under a given topic. This latest letter series is similar but with a 2 page limit. Each letter will be a photocopy of the original and will include other odds and bits, perhaps a bookmark, a quote, a short poem, … a surprise nonetheless. The letter will be folded, the odds and bits tucked between the pages, and all placed in the hand-decorated envelope. Can you guess what the current letter is about? That's right: birds!


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