Kickstarter

Hello and thank you for taking the time to look at this project! I am a full time artist living in the lovely finger lakes region of New York State. I make color-reduction woodcuts about ecological issues all over the world. Take a look at my website if you would like to see more art, information and events.
I was just awarded a large scale printmaking residency through The Venice Printmaking Studio in Italy! I will be headed there for the month of March in 2012. I am going to make a huge woodcut about invasive lionfish in Bahamian waters. Why do you ask am I going to Italy to make this woodcut? Because they have a MASSIVE press. The paper I will be using is 40 x 55 inches. My press at home is just 30 x 48 inches. Going to Venice allows me to make a giant piece of art.
I am hoping to "pre-sell" at least $2100 worth of artwork and postcards to subsidize my trip. Being a full time artist actually costs a ton of moola. I spend a little less than $20k a year for art festival show fees, gas, framing, and other travel expenses to bring my artwork to the public. I am not actually asking for money in this campaign, I am asking for folks to pre-purchase my art so it is possible for me to go to Italy. Please take a look at my blog for information about a show that I curated about artists who make a living selling their work at festivals. This money will help pay for my plane ticket, residency fee, water taxi, gondola rides, paper and pasta.
All of my artwork has pertinent environmental themes. My most comprehensive series is about invasive animals around the world. This large lionfish woodcut will fit into that series. Lionfish have become a huge problem in the Atlantic. They were introduced most likely as unwanted aquarium fish. People who own tanked fish sometimes let their scaly friends go into the sea thinking they will have a better life. The Lionfish did find a great life, because they have no natural predators, when let loose they ate up coral reefs, small fish and crustaceans at an unfortunate rate. People so far have tried to train sharks to eat them, put them on menus for people to eat them, and possibly catch them and put them back into the aquarium trade.
If you would like to see more pieces in my invasive animal series, here are a few favorites. Feral Cats eating up Numbats in Australia , Rainbow Trout that were dropped from planes, taken up with mule carts and trains to populate isolated mountain lakes in Western USA and Lodgepole pine trees being dropped from helicopters in New Zealand because it was thought that the steep NZ cliffs were eroding. Instead, these trees have taken over, giant tracts of Lodgepole pines can be found all over the island. The artwork I make tells stories of ecological mishaps with a bit of humor and hope.