It surprises me, the way my mind wanders and suddenly I am confronted with a series of ideas that become an obsession and I'm back on the track, motivated to pursue images that are linked. My fascination with all the words and phrases in the English language, that I interpreted visually, got me on a track that led me to the series I called "See What I'm Saying?". I started the first wood engraving of that series in 2009 while going back and forth between images of that theme, and others, such as "Aliens of Planet Earth", and illustrating some books and creating a series of greeting cards. Recently my usual pace of moving from one wood engraving to another has slowed considerably. There have been some problems and stresses that have been the cause, as well as the usual component of aging. Then this past July, when I had another slump and seemed to lack the motivation to search out the next theme (I tend to work in themes), I caught myself thinking about eyes. Eyes for looking. Eyes for watching. Eyes for spying. People watching animals. Animals watching people. And there I was, looking at another theme. Or was I?
As often happens I come up with a title of a print before I start working on an image. I thought of the phrase "I see you", and because I was still probably thinking along the "See What I'm Saying" track, I thought of: "Eye See You". Hey! a primate watching a human! That was it, and I was back in the saddle again. From that, a month or so later I started "Eye See You Too", which could (conventionally) be titled, I See You #2. There I was, playing the "See What I'm Saying?" game. If you're not confused by now, I guess I've failed.
