City of the World 2012: Monumental Collaborative Puzzle Print

Monumental Collaborative Puzzle Prints are huge woodcuts created and instigated by printmaking artist Maria Arango Diener. City of the World 2012 is the third of such projects and probably not the last. Project SUMMARY Generally speaking, a puzzle print is any print in which the block is sawed into pieces, each of which is carved and sometimes inked separately. The "puzzle" is then assembled at press and printed as a single image.

A Collaborative-Puzzle-Print is a special kind of puzzle print whereby a humongous block or three are painstakingly sawed into many many many funny shaped pieces. Each of the pieces is then flown across the world landing squarely in the carving bench of dozens of brave printmakers everywhere. Each artist carves their little piece, sometimes unaware of the "big picture" but always under a theme.

The coordinator receives back the tiny blocks and assembles them one by one until all come home. The coordinator then assembles and prints the entire puzzle composed of wonderfully carved images. Each printmaker then receives a rather large print of the entire project.

THE THEME for this project is "City of the World", as tightly or loosely interpreted as each participant wishes. The overall design interprets the theme literally, that is, the pieces could be part or entire cars, trucks, apartment windows, houses, clouds, planes, park benches, trees, shops, pieces of street or sidewalk, buses, and a very long etcetera. The piece each participant receives may or may not be recognizable and the shape may or may not influence the individual's design. The design may be how an individual sees themselves "in their corner of the world"; how they perceive themselves within the world or the world of printmaking; a representation of their actual place in their city or town; more generally "home"; their view of their city or town, again, etcetera. Anything goes in the City of the World.

Chronology and Print Information The City of the World 2012 was started in 2011 and completed in about a year. The resulting print spanned 6 wood panels and therefore 6 sheets of 22 x 30 inch paper, resulting in a print around 30 inches tall by almost 9 feet wide.

THIS BOOK is an expanded colophon of information about each panel, each piece, each printmaker and each image that composed the entire monumental woodcut.

The sections of the book include:

-Entire image reproduced -Key to the image -Participants -Each piece with participant comments -Process photos with explanation

Maria Arango is a full-time artist living in Las Vegas, Nevada. Maria has been widely exhibited in regional, national and international exhibits. Maria's accomplishments include the Nevada Governor's Visual Arts Commission, Best of Show Awards in Fine Art Festivals and purchase awards including works in the Springfield Museum of Art. Maria's works have been accepted in the prestigious Brand Gallery and Art Center in California in their annual juried works on paper exhibition, the Hunterdon Museum of Art and the 5th Print Biennial in the Marsh Gallery of the University of Richmond Museum. Her work is part of private and public permanent collections including the Las Vegas, Clark County Library Permanent Collection, the Nevada State Governor's Mansion Permanent Collection, University of Oregon print collection and the Princeton University Graphic Arts collection. A personal goal to complete 1,000 woodcuts is progressing heartily. Art Festivals throughout the West continue to be Maria's favorite venue for meeting her fast growing audience of collectors. An online search for 1000 Woodcuts will yield the various websites, galleries and shops where Maria can be contacted and followed and her artwork perused.