THOMAS WOOD FOR THE LEONARDO SCIASCIA PRIZE AMATEUR D'ESTAMPES

Thomas Wood, Flight of the Warriors of Western Ideology
etching
12.5" x 9"

Friends of Leonardo Sicascia Society invited Thomas Wood to participate in what has become one of the most original and prestigious international competitions celebrating the relationships between literature and original prints. The exhibition, Leonardo Sciascia Prize Amateur d’Estampes, will be touring Palermo, Formello, Fabriano, Florence, Venice, and Milan in 2012 and 2013. Intended for artists who specialize in etching techniques, the exhibition was established to celebrate Italian novelist, essayist, playwright and politician Leonardo Sciascia and his passion for prints.

From Thomas Wood: At One With Nature by Suzanne Beal: 

"Bellingham artist Thomas Wood has been accused of having multiple personalities— equally proficient in detailed, realistic images of nature, and fantastical representations of imaginary worlds. However, these two seemingly opposite visions become, under Wood’s watchful eye, a meditation on man’s intrinsic oneness with a natural world, in which leaves, planets, animals, and human elements not only cohabitate, but also thrive. 

Thomas Wood, Totem
etching
16" x 8"

[...] In many works, Wood’s collapsed boundaries result in a more fruitful existence for all: the skies, land and sea literally vibrating with the beating of wings and the tiny footprints of lively creatures. But this isn’t always the case. [...] In The Harvest, an aquatint with Chine collé, viewers observe the collision of worlds—that of humans and that of nature— as a woodsman fells a tree full of living creatures. Wood captures the victims’ loss of home, their will to survive, and the vulnerability of the least fortunate creatures—a gaping fish floundering on the ground, a white rabbit scampering into the darkness, and a young cub that clings to the lowermost regions of the trunk as the woodsman, head lowered, prepares to blindly swing his axe.

If Wood is adept at uncovering man’s oblivion in the face of nature, he is equally capable at using the organic world as an analogy for human states. [...] It is, in fact, difficult to find images in which various organic components have not in some way, merged in Wood’s rich body of work.  Even in his depictions of landscapes, such as Milky Way Over Meadows Camp Wood finds a visual vocabulary that offers a perfect blend of realism and the bright hallucinogenic lights of the imagination. [...]  

Thomas Wood, Marine Bouquet 
etching, drypoint, chine colle
18" x 14"

But Wood’s intention is not to confuse. Rather, his images hint at the real possibility of a world in harmony: One in which each of life’s interactions bears both real and literal fruit. [...] 

Although his work as whole reveals a broad range of interests, and a talent for exploring both interior and exterior worlds, Wood’s images share one overarching sentiment: As he explains, “Everything is nature. And we’re all in it together.” In this light, Wood’s diverse explorations do not expose an artist with branching, even divisive views, but rather one whose vision is sufficiently large to encompass us all."