Year of the Dog Series, Print No. 2: Whippet

This three-color linoprint is the second in the Year of the Dog series. The art celebrates the Whippet, a dog with forests, rabbits, kings and peasants in its history.

Here we go:

Whippets came from smaller greyhounds that were unsuitable for the nobility to hunt big game, like deer and wolves. Instead, they were excellent at catching rabbits and were called "snap dogs" for snapping up small prey.

But, if you dig a bit deeper, their history is as dark as the 11th-century English forest was untamed and mysterious.

The first Norman King of England established Forest Law, a system that reserved hunting as a right of the nobility. Greyhound breeders were peasants so they could not use the forest or own the dogs. They could only keep the smaller "unsuitable" greyhounds as rabbit/rodent catchers if the dogs were unequipped to hunt.

"Unequipping" the dogs meant a cruel practice of cutting off a toe or nicking a tendon. Between the forest and humans, it's hard to say which was scarier for the whippets.

Specifications:

The print is made on light- to mid-weight handmade Japanese mulberry paper. The color is off-white.

This is a VERY LIMITED print; there are only six made total. I hand-carved two blocks, one for the foreground and one for the background. Both the background colors came from one block — the original shape has been cut away for the second color, meaning it can never be printed again, making it limited.

Each color is inked individually and pulled by hand from a press. Because of these manual production processes, please expect unique textures and/or minor differences in each print.

Dimensions:
• ~14 inch (~35,5 cm) wide
• ~8 inch (~20,3 cm) tall

For shipping, the print will be slipped inside an acid-free, archival protective sleeve and packed with a piece of sturdy board.

Each print is signed.