A piece of history, beauty
LCCC professor makes print from 200-year-old wood block

By Becky Orr
rep6@wyomingnews.com
Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle

CHEYENNE - About 200 years ago a Tibetan monk painstakingly carved images into a block of wood to promote good will, peace and good fortune.

The artist's name never will be known. And details of his life long have been forgotten.

But on Thursday, thousands of miles away and thousands of days later, the artisan's work took on fresh life.

A group that gathered in an art room at Laramie County Community College saw the artist's work brought into the present.

At noon, teacher Ron Medina carefully tugged at a thick piece of paper made from a mulberry tree. He slowly pulled it away from the ink-soaked woodblock to reveal an image.

"There, we have our print," he said.

He smiled as he held up the paper with the black-ink design on it. It showed an image of an ornately designed horse that had three jewels on its back. Tibetan script surrounded the horse.

"Oh, it's lovely," Barbara Murray, one of Medina's students said.

The woodblock is anywhere from 150 to 200 years old, said Mark Joyce of Cheyenne. The woodblock is part of his collection after he acquired it a few months ago.

Joyce sought out Medina to find out if the art teacher could lift a print from the block. But Joyce said he wasn't optimistic, given the thick layers of ink that had hardened like glue on the block. The ink even obscured some of the images.

Medina took on the challenge. He spent at least five hours cleaning the woodblock.

He used vegetable oil to soften the ink. Then he took metal dental tools to finish the job when the toothpicks he tried to dig out the ink with snapped.

The image from the woodblock hasn't been reproduced for at least 40 or 50 years, Joyce said. That's when the previous owners took it out of Tibet after China invaded the country and destroyed Tibetan religious art, he said.

Joyce said he plans to transfer the design into a digital image. T-shirts will be made bearing the design.

The profits of the sale of the shirts will go to the Tibetan Village Project, a nonprofit group based in Boulder, Colo. The organization helps people in Tibet and aims to end poverty there.

"I am amazed by the job that Ron did in terms of producing that print," Joyce said. "Literally, the thing was caked in old ink. It's a testament to his skills."

The image on the woodblock would be a common theme for a Tibetan prayer flag, Joyce said.

Prayer flags have been common in Tibet. The flags are designed to promote compassion, wisdom and good fortune, he said. Jewels depicted in the woodblock relief represent the Tibetan Buddhist trinity.

Medina has a deep respect for the artist who made the woodblock.

"It's the oldest printmaking technique," he said as he dipped a roller into a layer of water-based black ink.

"All of it had to be carved in reverse. They were really inventive."

Medina pushed the roller back and forth across the block to make sure it was covered in ink.

He then covered it with paper, which he rubbed with a "'barren," or a hand-held circular tool. He pushed down on the barren to make sure the paper came in contact with the ink.

Then he peeled it back.

Joyce said he isn't sure what the Tibetan script says. But he added that a Tibetan lama will translate it when he visits Cheyenne on Nov. 7 during a program about Tibet organized by the Tibetan Village Project and the Unitarian Universalist Church.

"I didn't know what I was going to get," Medina said of his work. "I wasn't sure if it was going to come out.

"You don't know if the entire image is going to transfer until you turn that print over. You have to do a little bit of hoping, guessing and - poof! - it's kind of like magic."