Friend, Chris Cavanaugh and I were having an online discussion of graphic symbols and I had just printed three rabbits joined by three ears. And he asked about three fishes with one head. I was only vaguely aware of this symbol. I knew it was old but I didn’t know the origin story.
Turns out it is very old and of very different origins, all in the old world. But in the 1960s, Allen Ginsberg adopted the three fish/one head symbol as referring to him. Kind of like a logo, or symbol of him and his art. Cool.
SO, I carved it in wood once and printed. I didn’t like the design. Almost a copy of an image of an ancient clay vessel. So I tried to tweak the plate about three times. I finally gave up. I could not get the print right on the wood block.
I reduced its size, carved it in lino, took out this figure of an old Asian building, replaced it with a representation of a lotus flower, moved the double yin/yang symbols. Added 12 ordinals and a little twist to the outer circle. And removed any sign of the ancient vessel.
Printed one color and hand painted the dots and eye. There are actually two versions. One with yellow and the actual run with orange. Only 9 copies of this run.
After printing, I added my printer’s “chop.” That, too, is like a logo for a print maker.
I put one on the wall. I sent another to Chris Cavanaugh, the muse on this project and one more to a Ginsberg fan who has taught me more than one thing in life. Six left if you are interested.
In affecdtion for the state of Dharma and a tribute to Allen Ginsberg
You don’t know my neighbor (we call him Mr. Tony) but he is a fine specimen of humanity. Long have I tried to find a way to thank him for being helpful, kind, humble and an excellent neighbor.
Recently, he has begun a project of passion. He owns a dozen or so chickens. They bring great joy to him, his wife and his mother-in-law who lives with them. But this chicken coop project started to take on the appearance of an artistic fugue. Shed after shed began to emerge in his back yard. And I stood there in awe and wonder to watch it emerge, grow, evolve.
And in a flash, I know how to say thank you to Mr. Tony. So, for about a week, I photographed, drew, carved, started over but finally, my own opus to his project.
I present “Mr. Tony’s Eggsellent Chicken Emporium: Your Eggs for Nothing & Your Chicks for Free” 2026.
And just so you know it is a real rendering and not an artistic imagining:
This is a variable edition of 20 prints, all titled “Below the Treeline.” Print is 12″ x 12″ on black linen paper. Each image contains three colors. There are six different iterations. I witnessed a moon with similar treatment by Lindsay Perrett on Facebook. I thank her for the inspiration.
I am an old man now. My hands know the weight of small blades, how pressure must be patient and come from the elbow or the line collapses.
Once, I was a poet before I knew what that meant. I loved a woman I never touched. Her voice reached me first, raw as a whiskey throat, and I believed— because I was young— that wanting was the same as knowing. I paid five dollars to sit close enough to see sweat gather where the lights made her human. My heart tried to leave me. It did not ask permission.
Later, the girl beside me disappeared, as girls do. The boy I was disappeared too, replaced by a uniform and a bottle passed hand to hand in a room that smelled of boots and Brasso. When the radio said her name and then said “dead,” I drank until morning and learned how grief can make a body useless. Other men stood in my place that day. They did not ask why.
Now, decades later, I carve her again. Not the woman— the resistance. Linoleum pushes back where I want it to open. Lines fill in. Shadows refuse instruction. Each proof shows me what I missed, what I thought I understood too soon. I return with the chisel, Still old, still slow, still believing in correction.
This is what love was, even then: not ease, not possession, but the long willingness to keep cutting after the image fights back. The continuing attempt to get it right.
This is the happiest accident of this early year. I actually have 4 of these accidents. Three might be usable. This is being sent to my daughter, Maggie, as it is inspired by her son Harvey. I am saving one for me. But three other kids and only two prints…one if the ghost image is unsettling.
This might be the last good image I pulled off the gelli plate. (Technically it is a monoprint in acrylic on heavy paper.) I rather like this image but it was surrounded by too many others best suited for collage work. Sorry for the distortion in the photo. I am inept with a camera.
I’ve completed my first commission and had my first disagreement with a client. “That’s not what I asked for,” was the comment. “Well, that’s what I could make today,” I answered. Eventually I found a way to make it acceptable to the client and harmony was restored to the marriage. Yeah, my wife was my first commission.
She liked “Jason’s Tiles” but didn’t think blue would work in her kitchen, so we produced 20 more imprints in this green-green (two colors, pale green and bright green) 4″ x 4″ on while paper arranged and assembled in a four tile panel on green card stock.
This summer, my son and his husband, Jason, went to Portugal to look around. One of the pictures Jason sent back was this lovely, Old World tile. I was so intrigued by it, I decided to duplicate it. Because I wanted to learn something about two-block technique that’s the way I set this experiment up. So far I have a run of 20 of these “tiles” but I’ve left the edition open to make different presentations and perhaps different colors in the future. Watch this space for assemblage pieces.
As seen here it is just under 4″ x 4″ (like real tiles). Printed in water-based inks, mounted on card stock.
This is the most complex print I have attempted to date. It is called “Donielle’s New Hat.” There was never really any other title possible. Donielle is a friend and she gave me permission about a year ago to do this rendition of her photo. I had to wait while my skills grew into the endeavor.
It is a reduction linocut of 6 layers with the hand-painted earrings in a 7th color printed on vellum and mounted on backing paper of an 8th color. I am satisfied with it despite some technical issues.
It is a 4.5″ x 8.5″ print mounted on 8.5″ x 11″ paper and backing framed in a 9″ x 13″ frame. This is 1 of 13 in the world.
This is from a photo I saw somewhere. I’m not trying to steal anything. But it is dedicated to Mr. and Mrs. Thompson (you know who you are). The traditional VW with “birth control” seats, was an icon of the 60s among a certain class of drivers. This image tries to evoke the spirit of that era. No print is perfect and the four layers of this print each created a different challenge. BUG 1 is a lino cut 4-layer print of 6.5″ x 6″ on paper. Limited edition of 12.
