I make my home on the slope of Hualalai Mountain on a lovely five-acre coffee and macadamia nut farm in Kahalu’u, Kona on the island of Hawai’i. The land and its culture inspire in me a deep need to communicate my feelings and perceptions. Images arise from an awareness of my inner experience balanced with my attention to the external world. I follow the thread of an idea in a search to understand what it is that intrigues me. I may have a sense that an idea is not really about `ōhi`a, but more about a quality of the relationship between the tree and its environment. This begins a journey of dreams, unexpected insights and dawning clarity as the image unfolds into a visual expression that becomes my first sketch.
After this magical process of exploration, I enter into the very structured and earthy process that is woodcut printmaking. Unlocking the mysteries embedded in the grain of wood, making marks with chisels and grappling with the puzzle of the image reversing when transferred from wood to paper satisfies my intellect, soul and hands in a deeply joyful way.
As a child I recognized myself as an artist and enjoyed drawing, ceramics, and making clothes. After earning my B.A. in cultural anthropology I pursued photography, finally recognizing printmaking as my calling after taking a woodcut workshop in 1997. I studied for years with master printmakers developing focus, persistence and discovering my own unique way of expressing my vision through this art form.
The basic idea in the printmaking process is that an image incised or carved on a wood block or plate will be transferred to paper when inked and run through a press. My prints are made one at a time by hand and are printed in limited editions.
View work by Andrea Pro by visiting her page on our online store.