We have finally finished our gallery wall full of Nick Wroblewski's incredible hand carved wood block prints!
This process starts with a design drawn on a flat block of wood. The composition is created knowing that the resulting print will be a mirror image of the carved block. Areas not intended to be seen are carved away. The raised area of the block that remains will be the surface that creates the image.
Once the block has been carved, ink is often applied with a special roller called a brayer. The intended color is first mixed and spread on a flat surface, such as glass. The brayer is rolled over the ink and then across the woodblock.
A piece of paper is placed upon the block with special attention to alignment and then passed through a press, which applies even pressure to transfer the image to the paper.
In a multicolor, multi-block print, this sequence of carving, inking and printing is repeated for each individual color on each block. A single piece of paper will pass through the press many times as layers of colors from each block are added to create the final image.
About the Artist: Nick Wroblewski was born into a lively community of artists in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Inspired by idealists, Nick’s commitment to art has never wavered. Through art classes as a child, arts high school as a teen, and a degree in fine arts from Bennington College in Vermont, Nick explored the full scope of creative mediums before finding his place in printmaking, where he combines his love of sculpture, painting and composition into a single artistic process. While his focus is on large, multicolor reduction prints, he still tinkers with the intricacies of pop-up mechanics and paper mache sculptures.
