David Berg
David Berg is a native of Michigan’s the Upper Peninsula and grateful to experience this outdoor wonderland every day. After fifty years he decided to try and document his love for the U.P. through some creative expression. David began exploring art and chose to try his hand at block printing because it seemed like something he could do. He found these prints to be deceptively simple looking, but in fact require a great deal of practice, planning, skills, and a bit of luck to create quality images. Once he got the hang of it, Berg was hooked and began creating complex reduction prints.
ARTIST STATEMENT - The art I create is bound to my process of reduction printing. Hand carving and inking multiple layers of textures and colors to produce a work that invites the viewer to immerse themselves into the experience of the artist and connect at a deeper level with the subject.
PROCESS - Block prints, or relief prints are created when surface area is carved from a flat plate of wood or linoleum. The surface of the plate is then inked and transferred to paper by hand or press to make an image, leaving the carved area unprinted. I generally use a reduction technique in which this process is repeated in a successive manner of carving, inking, and pressing the same block until the image is complete. The lightest areas of the image are generally created first followed by the darker colors. I aim for a consistent looking image across a small number of prints. This process provides near endless opportunities for mistakes, which makes it very challenging, but also very rewarding when things work as desired. Please see my video for a demonstration of reduction
