Carol Brown: The Zen of Woodcuts The Japanese style woodcut prints of Carson City artist Carol Brown embody Zen philosophy with the visual imagery of a walk in the woods. According to Brown, “the physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, and creative parts come together” into images of nature that burst with texture, color, and light. It is with reverence that Brown speaks of Hiroki, her Japanese instructor and master printer at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Colorado where she learned the ancient art of Japanese Hanga wood block printing. “Printmaking is an art about process. My mind, body and spirit feel whole in the process of making [these woodcuts].” Definitely not a fast process, minimal time from start to finish is one week: preparation of the paper, sketching the image, carving the wood into the desired images, printing colors by hand in multiple printings, and then evaluating the process. In the world of the Japanese printer the creation of a woodcut print is so much more than the application of a hand carved wooden block of wood onto rice paper. Tradition rules the process. Tools for the carving may have been created by generations of the past and handed down from printer to printer in the family. Traditional tools, such as the baren (a circular wooden disk covered with bamboo leaf and rubbed on the paper over the block under pressure of the hand) have been made by the same families for years. Unfortunately, the advent of modern technology threatens continuation of this production tradition. In Zen tradition, the Japanese printer sits on the floor as he “pulls” his prints. Brown’s life has been a Zen journey of discovery in itself. After a 10-year career designing children’s clothes sold at the Apparel Mart in Dallas, Carol’s life path took her to the job of Super Mom where the demands of daily life edged out the artistic creativity that had been such a part of her. After divorce and a move to the country, Brown found herself searching for a way to combine her love of nature and her love of art. As if in direct answer to the question, one week later a letter announcing a course on Journaling in Nature in Jackson Hole arrived in the mail. What better place could there be to find the answer! In the beauty of nature she began to write journals which later provided inspiration for woodcut prints. Brown’s images emit the quiet serenity of Zen: “Magnolia at McNay” reminding me of the elegance and spirit of an opening lotus flower; “Door Series” waiting to open to another world, perhaps the interior space of the soul, and “Desert Sand Storm” catching visual melodic rhythms of the abstract. Her woodcuts couple complexity and simplicity into one image to speak to heart and soul. For any artist the impact of life’s experiences in his/her environment becomes mingled with the totality of the person leading to new insights of creativity which may then appear in a painting, a sculpture, or another artistic form. Brown describes this process as the “fermentation process” in which the bits and pieces, often unrelated, simmer in the mind until the right moment when they come together. The change of scenery from her previous home in Texas to the grandeur of the Sierras has led to new questions and new images still waiting to be born. For Carol Brown each day is another day of journey and discovery. Please feel free to share comments with me at tvponlin@taosnet.com and read more news about art of the West online at www.csdesignsco.com.