Three-color letterpress print done by Koch Printing in Austin, Texas. Printed on natural Speckletone paper from French Paper Co. Blank inside. Measures 4 1/2” x 6 1/8” (A6), includes an envelope and comes in a protective sleeve. Edition of 300.
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Here we are in my ninth year of creating a card for the holiday season. Once a year, typically between August and September, deer begin scraping their antlers against trees and other rough surfaces in order to remove the thin layer of fuzzy tissue that coats them. This tissue is known as velvet and it contains a rich tapestry of blood vessels needed for the growth and development of their antlers. The process of removing the velvet causes it to hang from the antlers like dead skin and the antlers themselves to glisten in a coating of blood. As gruesome as this may appear, it is not a painful process, and it allows the antlers to properly harden in time for mating season, after which, they will lose the antlers altogether and the whole process will begin again. You may be wondering why I chose to depict this on a holiday card, and the reason for that is that this process symbolizes ritual and transformation. I also feel that it shows that sometimes something that may not appear beautiful at first glance actually can be. The holiday season is cluttered with consumerism and from a distance it is also quite ugly, but if you are able to move past that and engage in the ritual of spending time with loved ones, it can be a beautiful thing. Like the itchy velvet asking to be sloughed off, one might argue that shedding the corporate holiday traditions and instead focusing on the things and people that are important to us can bring about a needed change and feeling of renewal — helping us grow and transition into a new year, better prepared for the next cycle.
Three-color letterpress print done by Koch Printing in Austin, Texas. Printed on natural Speckletone paper from French Paper Co. Blank inside. Measures 4 1/2” x 6 1/8” (A6), includes an envelope and comes in a protective sleeve. Edition of 300.
––––––
Here we are in my ninth year of creating a card for the holiday season. Once a year, typically between August and September, deer begin scraping their antlers against trees and other rough surfaces in order to remove the thin layer of fuzzy tissue that coats them. This tissue is known as velvet and it contains a rich tapestry of blood vessels needed for the growth and development of their antlers. The process of removing the velvet causes it to hang from the antlers like dead skin and the antlers themselves to glisten in a coating of blood. As gruesome as this may appear, it is not a painful process, and it allows the antlers to properly harden in time for mating season, after which, they will lose the antlers altogether and the whole process will begin again. You may be wondering why I chose to depict this on a holiday card, and the reason for that is that this process symbolizes ritual and transformation. I also feel that it shows that sometimes something that may not appear beautiful at first glance actually can be. The holiday season is cluttered with consumerism and from a distance it is also quite ugly, but if you are able to move past that and engage in the ritual of spending time with loved ones, it can be a beautiful thing. Like the itchy velvet asking to be sloughed off, one might argue that shedding the corporate holiday traditions and instead focusing on the things and people that are important to us can bring about a needed change and feeling of renewal — helping us grow and transition into a new year, better prepared for the next cycle.
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