Current Position
Self-employed designer and letterpress printer
Website
www.fablewood.com
Four Stories Website
(link to info on the book "Four Stories" co-published by Egress Press and Research.)
Email
andy@fablewood.com
Year Residency-Fall of 2004
Medium Six-Color Lithograph with Letterpress Text
Printed as a gift to donators to Edinboro University in conjunction with the Eup developement office.
Year Residency - Summer 2003 through Spring 2004
Medium Wood Engraving, Book Art
Statement
I follow a dog chasing some invisible bird.
My work is prayer.
It longs to be humble.
It makes visible my essence and desire,
Makes clear my failure and my joy.
It dreams of hope and whispered wisdoms.
It seeks truth.
My goal is to overtake the dog
And make visible the invisible bird.
Good story is timeless; transcendent of time, space and culture, it has ever been humanity’s attempt to understand the world around us. One beauty of story, is its functionality; that somehow by experiencing it you might understand more, feel some new feeling, revisit some old one or find enlightenment. For much of my artistic career I have made prints; now I begin to understand the true medium in which I work: the medium of story. It is a medium that goes beyond ink, paint, words or even music. It is a profound medium of which life itself is a tool, like a brush or an etching needle.
Like many forms of art, story is not a medium to be forced. Much of the preparatory work is a matter of living life and allowing a story to filter from experience through a quiet mind. The creation itself is a quest, the object of which is not immediately known. It is a matter of being led to its conclusion and discovering that which would not have been visible or apparent in any other way. The story can take many forms, i.e., writing, drawing, printmaking etc., or a combination thereof. Some stories are told in a single image some in many, but the images are not separate form the words (or music, or performance), they’re like threads in a tapestry, beautiful in and of themselves, but taken in as a complete whole, even more magnificent. This is what I love...A metaphor of the individual complicated lives we all live.
My art and its creation are deeply entwined with my religious beliefs and so my goals for each are consistent. That being, to seek a deep and meaningful relationship with God and Christ leading to a fuller understanding of truth and the experience of joy and inner peace, and to share that truth, joy and peace with others through service, sincere love and friendship. It is my great hope that those who experience my work come away with any number of the most positive of human experiences: hope, truth, joy, peace, resolve, sympathy and enlightenment.