Spoiler: Creative malaise and picking my event box carve

Okay, so my apologies, I’m not gone.  I have had quite the whirlwind year so far which has meant that there has been little time for letterboxing-related activities, and even less for the blog.  And at the moment, I have a terrible case of the flu.  I've been off work since last Friday.  But I’m here and alive - and I’m looking forward to an amazing year of letterboxing adventures.

One of the things keeping my mind preoccupied is this year’s BoxON which I am hosting in Markham.  I’ve had a bit of creative malaise since I scheduled it, my brain hanging up on the image decision for the event box.  Yes, there are many other things to work on leading up to that carve, but for whatever reason, my brain wasn’t allowing that to happen.

However, I have finally picked what I feel is the perfect image for the theme (Mystery Markham).  It’s a complicated image, and will definitely take me longer than any other carve I’ve done, so I’ve decided to chronicle its creation here in the lead up to the event. Hope you don’t mind.  If you’d rather not see it, I will be continuing to include the word “spoiler” in my blog titles so you will be warned.

I’ve chosen to reproduce and slightly modify the Flammarion woodcut, which I’m sure everyone has seen at one point or another. The Flammarion woodcut dates back to the late 1800s, although there’s some argument whether it is a woodcut or some other type of print. It’s unknown who the artist is and it has been reproduced endlessly in
literature and online.

I have always really liked the image, and I think I will enjoy carving it because whether it is actually a woodcut or not, it is in that style which I really like.  The image itself I think captures the feeling of wonder at the universe, that there are infinite mysteries out there – one of the aspects of letterboxing that I enjoy so much. The image itself also lends to being modified to include a title within the bottom scroll.  I’m planning to make it quite large to get the details – perhaps about six inches wide – so it will take me quite some time.  Stay tuned for updates!