s3e57 unique reduction woodcuts with artist Karen Kunc

Platemark: prints and the printmaking ecosystem

In s3e57, Platemark host Ann Shafer speaks with Karen Kunc, an artist who manipulates reduction woodcuts in an amazing and unique way. Karen is a retired professor from the University of Nebraska, and is owner of Constellation Studios in downtown Lincoln. At the studio, which opened ten years ago, Karen offers workshops, curates exhibitions, and makes her own work. The studio includes equipment for papermaking, book arts, letterpress, and other means of creating prints.

Karen’s work includes relief prints and artist books reflecting her signature nature-based lyrical abstraction. These images could be macro or micro: the biomorphic shapes could be aerial images of her native Nebraska, or the wiggles and squiggles could be forms held within our cells. Each print becomes a portal to an alternate reality, where the boundaries between the tangible and the intangible blur, inviting us to explore the complexities of our earthly domain.

This all sounds simple, but Karen’s process is anything but. She uses stencils, fingers, hands, brushes and any other tool to gain amazing transitions between forms. Plus, she intuitively solves compositional challenges as she goes. Karen is an artist's artist whose groundbreaking woodcuts will amaze and delight you.

Karen Kunc (American, born 1952). Array of Raressence, 2018. Woodcut. 72 x 26 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Karen Kunc (American, born 1952). Coral Sanctuary, 2019. Woodcut. 72 x 26 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Karen Kunc (American, born 1952). Blue Cascade, 2020. Woodcut. 14 1/2 x 42 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Karen Kunc (American, born 1952). Gatherings, 2021. Woodcut. 14 x 29 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Karen Kunc (American, born 1952). Distillation, 2018. Woodcut, etching, pochoir, and watercolor. 12 x 24 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Karen Kunc (American, born 1952). Sacred Allegori, 2018. Woodcut, etching, pochoir, and watercolor. 24 x 24 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Karen Kunc (American, born 1952). Drifts of Ice & Gold, 2022. Woodcut. 17 x 56 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Karen Kunc (American, born 1952). Blooms of the Present Moment, 2023. Woodcut. 17 x 56 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Karen Kunc (American, born 1952). Waves of Riches, 2016. Woodcut and pochoir. 13 1/2 x 57 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Karen Kunc (American, born 1952). Panoply, 2016. Woodcut and pochoir. 13 1/2 x 57. Courtesy of the artist.

Karen Kunc (American, born 1952). Verse from Macrocosmica, 2010. Woodcut. 29 x 24 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Karen Kunc (American, born 1952). Release, 2020–21. Accordion-folded volume with etching, woodcut, and letterpress on various Japanese Nishinouchi papers. Closed: 7 x 4 in.; open: 7 x 56 in. Published by Blue Heron Press at Constellation Studios, Lincoln, Nebraska. Courtesy of the artist.

Karen Kunc (American, born 1952). The Way of Water, 2024. Accordion-folded volume with woodcut and letterpress on Japanese Nishinouchi. Closed: 11 x 7 1/2 in.; open: 11 x 45 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Karen Kunc (American, born 1952). Incessant White Noise, 2013. Accordion-folded volume with woodcut and letterpress on Japanese Nishinouchi. Closed: 11 x 5 in; open: 11 x 35 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Constellation Studios, Lincoln, NE.