Growing the Fantastic Garden 2013: The Tale of Making a Monumental Collaborative Puzzle Print

The book Growing the Fantastic Garden 2013 explains the process and depicts images of making a collaborative woodcut print by 92 international artists.

The resulting four-panel print measures 60 x 44 inches and encompasses a large garden image composed of 92 puzzle-like pieces, each unique as the artist who design it.

Briefly, a Monumental Puzzle Print is a large design composed of "puzzle pieces", each of which is designed and carved as a relief or woodcut by a unique artist under a common theme.

Woodcut prints are made by carving a block of wood in relief, inking the relief (such as a stamp) and applying paper and pressure to obtain an imprint of the carving.

In this fourth collaborative woodcut print, the project director, Maria Arango Diener designed and sawed a wood block into puzzle-like pieces, then sent the pieces to participant artists; they carved their own little design under the theme Fantastic Garden and sent the puzzle piece back to the director.

The Master Gardener and Project Director proceeded to assemble the carved puzzle pieces. The entire design was inked and printed as a woodcut print after the puzzle was reassembled and finally each participant received a huge print encompassing the entire design.

The book Growing the Fantastic Garden 2013 contains all the individual images with artist names and locations, the composite panels, studio pictures and explanation of the woodcut print process as well as notes on the collaboration process, information on the design and brief history of previous projects, artist's comments on their own images, individual block and print photos of each artist's contribution, gardening quotes and the birth of the garden among the dog trails and much more.

The author and artist project director, Maria Arango Diener has led four such projects and is already planning the next.