Nick Wroblewski, a former Twin Cities artist who is now based in Viroqua, WI, specializes in hand cut wood block prints. Nick studied art at Bennington College in Vermont and later taught himself the technique of relief printmaking. Majoring in painting and sculpture, he combined elements of the two and has been busy creating new images with woodblocks since 1996.
In his childhood, Nick traveled with a touring circus that took its show down the Mississippi River and performed in every state from Minnesota to Louisiana. This early experience greatly influenced his desire to work within the arts. Through his travels to places including Baja, Mexico, the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, and The Northwest Territories in Canada, Nick has established a commitment to producing woodcut prints that are inspired by the many facets of the natural world. His award-winning prints have been featured in magazine illustrations, galleries, and art shows across the country.
What Nick says about his work:
Woodblock printmaking is an activity that requires the reduction of a material (wood) and the addition of another (ink), to print an account of the transformation upon a surface. Carving an image in a block of wood is a commitment; once engaged, it is difficult to go backwards. This commitment and interaction with a once-living material captures an energy that represents an honest, hand-hewn record of a physical process.
I am particularly interested by the interplay between positive and negative space within nature. The forms created by shapes devoid of objects become as important in composing a woodcut as the subjects themselves. Space is literally “translated” through the tactile process of cutting imagery into a block of wood.
The majority of my images are derived from the natural world. Within it is a repetition of patterns on many different scales. Through my carving and printing considerations, I attempt to breathe a sense of life into the images. It is the overlapping of individual colors and textured pattern that I hope ultimately contribute to create a sense of the whole.
My prints often depict what I see as the energetic interactions between animals. This manifests itself in the way animals migrate, move as a whole, and reproduce. Many creatures have solved the most complex of problems in elegantly simple ways. Printmaking has become a pure, visceral means for me to investigate and appreciate the solutions our natural world utilizes for its survival.
