Living Off the Land

Outside of art, one of my biggest passions is exploring the edible wildlife in the Bay Area—from berries, to mushrooms, to seaweed. Living Off the Land is my personal, ongoing collection of woodcut paintings to celebrate the many forageables of California! Each piece is centered around one of my favorite wild edibles. Through this series, I hope to inspire others to look for the magic that surrounds us in nature, and share some of the joy I've found in foraging and living off the land!

 

The process: from paper sketch to woodcut painting

For each piece, I start by creating loose thumbnail sketches in ink, and then I move to the computer to vectorize the outline of the woodcut. Once I have the outline vectorized, I use a laser cutter at my local makerspace to cut two pieces out of 3mm plywood—the front piece with the illustration outline, and a rectangle that acts as the "backing" of the piece.

Then comes my favorite step—painting! First, I seal the wood pieces to prevent them from absorbing moisture, then I prime them to prepare the plywood for painting. Finally, I paint each woodcut with acrylic gouache, and add tiny layering details on top with colored pencil. From start to finish, each piece takes me 8–10 hours. It's definitely a labor of love!

 

Current pieces in the collection

• Nasturtium
• Chanterelle
• Woodland Strawberry

 

Plans for the future

I plan to continue painting one piece a month, and slowly growing this series!

Outside of the original woodcut paintings, one day, I would love to turn Living Off the Land into a mail club of some sort—where each letter might contain a collectible card of the painting, a recipe with my favorite ways to prepare the item, and a tips sheet on where and when to forage for it. And maybe even make a small book one day of all the paintings and details on each edible! One can dream :)