Fire Crown (CTP/BAT)

No image available

2025

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Karen Kunc

(American, 1952-)

Culture

America

Medium

Color-reduction woodblock on Japanese archival handmade paper

Credit Line

Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland 2025.554

This artwork is known to be under copyright.

Location

Not on view

Did You Know?

Making a reduction woodcut requires the artist to carve away parts of the block to “reduce” the surface after printing each color, such that the block is essentially destroyed as the print is made.

Description

Karen Kunc’s art, rooted in the landscape of the Great Plains, explores nature’s strength and fragility. Fire Crown is a color-reduction woodblock print depicting a fiery, personified tree that symbolizes creation, destruction, and renewal. Evolving from a spontaneous sketch, the image conveys bursts of energy and movement. As Kunc carves, prints, and reworks her blocks, she simultaneously destroys and transforms them, mirroring natural cycles of growth and decay. The tree’s entreating, entwining, and ensnaring gestures suggest both resilience and vulnerability.