Species: Texas Red Oak
Latitude & Longitude: 32.0356 - 94.4729
Press Date: Summer 2020
Dimensions: 30 w x 44 h inches
Materials: Legion Archival Paper and Speedball Black Ink
Style: White Ink on Black Paper
Limited Edition- 70 hand prints made
Description -This beautiful spalted Red Oak from our lakeside retreat had significant rot and hosted a colony of carpenter ants that were making some serious headway at carving out the hollows. Small piles of sawdust at the base of the trunk were one of the many signs that sealed her fate. She’s between 65 and 70 yrs old which means she was a seedling around the same years my parents born. I’m celebrating her life with the largest print that I’ve attempted to date at 24 x 28” on 30 x 44” paper.
Each tree ring print is prepared and printed by hand in a small limited edition based on the number of growth rings/years, in this case approx 70. The wood is prepared by first sanding, torching, dampening and repeating until the growth rings are raised enough to print. Tree growth rings are made of springwood and summerwood, hence the name. Springwood is softer than the summerwood, therefore when heated the differences in density creates ridges which are printable. Fun fact, the size gaps between the rings are also a direct correlation of how much rain was present that year.
We print each piece directly from the wood slab by hand, as you will sometimes see manual hand press marks on the back of the paper and some embossing.
Note: Each print is original and unique because of the subtle differences that hand printing creates.
Each print is signed by artist Ashley Brightwell, numbered, titled and include latitude/longitude coordinates of the tree’s origin.
