Traditional hanga technique. I carved eight blocks,
four from shina plywood, and four from birch plywood. I used three
Windsor/Newton watercolors, transparent yellow, quinacidrone magenta,
prussian blue, plus prepared sumi and printed VERY dry on VERY
lightweight kitakata paper. I wasn't up to carving the tiny little
words, so they were laser-printed prior to dampening the paper.
Thirty-nine people who believed their souls were destined to
rendezvous with angels in a spacecraft travelling behind the
Hale-Bopp comet committed suicide in late March of 1997. Their bodies
were found in a rented mansion in an exclusive suburb 20 miles north
of San Diego. The 21 women and 18 men, aged between 20 and 72, were
lying neatly on their backs 'as if asleep', their upper bodies
covered in triangular purple shrouds.
My endangered species print is a portrait of the group's spiritual
leader, Marshall Applewhite. In the background are angels as depicted
in the group's website, and Applewhite (whose name I somehow managed
to mis-spell!) is quoted in a cartouche in the upper right. We are
all going to die soon enough. Why rush it? I say, "let's enjoy the
ride!"
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