Woodcut, 55×40”, carved 2023, printed in 2024 by Pele Prints on Stonehenge “White” printmaking paper, limited edition of 20 prints. Originally carved for the Block Party steamroller print event at the Foundry Art Center in St. Charles.

The shipping pallet is an inherently working class object. They only exist to be of service to other objects to facilitate shipping and transport. Though humble in nature, the pallet is strong and shows the world its robust wooden skeleton, able to move literal tons of bricks, cement and all kinds of incredibly heavy things. I find it beautifully fitting that working class DIYers so often utilize retired shipping pallets as a source for free building materials to give them a new life as bookshelves, chairs and coffee tables.

Each slat of the pallet was carved using a different sized tool to give them slight variations in tone. The lines on the boards go from end to end without stopping, except for a few places where a hard stop was necessary to show a nail, gouge in the wood, or a cast shadow. The tonal shading on each board and in the end grain was created by varying the depth/width of the carved marks. Nothing is outlined and the ends of the boards run off into the margins of the paper.

Prints are shipped rolled with glassine in 3” a kraft paper tube.