The technique of woodblock print making is part of my soul. After over forty-five years of sketching, carving and printing, I am still as excited as I was when I pulled my first print with Hodaka Yoshida in Tokyo. The textural thread within my collage work leads from one image to the next. There is something magical about using the elements of the planet: gold, silver, copper, gemstones and pigments made from soils. These processes have become the way of expressing my world. It involves seeing images through a series of shapes, arranged and colored to represent the essence ... the magic ... that I experience. The technique of woodblock print making dates back to the 2nd century B.C. in China. Japan has enjoyed a long tradition of woodblock print making, with woodcuts first appearing in 1770 A.D. My technique of woodblock printing is exclusively the traditional Japanese method which I studied in Tokyo, Japan under Master Hodaka Yoshida. A carved woodblock is created for each color in the print. Watercolor and rice paste are applied with a Japanese brush to the wood. A dampened piece of handmade mulberry Kizuki paper is placed on the block and pressed, transferring the color to the paper. Two sides of each piece of paper are exactingly cut at right angles for the registration of the paper to the woodblock. The precise hand-registration of the paper to each block must be repeated many times throughout the creation of one print. My signature of 22K gold, silver, or copper leaf is applied last as embellishment to the print. Each print is released in limited editions of 50.