I've been reading a lot about the Pleistocene lately. That's not news, but it is appropriate to be thinking about the era of great mammals and their extinction while working on this print about one of the most emblematic of those beasts- Arctodus, the short-faced bear. If we ever remember what it was like to be prey, and I certainly hope we do, it will be an echo of the terror that this monster inspired in the first humans to arrive on this continent. Huge, curious and hungry- these are monsters sorely missed in this empty land.
I carved these two blocks while in residency at Ucross in Wyoming, surrounded by wild grasslands and not far from Natural Trap cave, where the fossil remains of Arctodus have been found. They produced a deep emboss on the paper, hand-printed in yellow and sepia inks on ecru paper at Flight 64 studio in Portland.
