Curio: Lisa Brawn's Woodcuts

Alexa from Pop Elegantiarum here with your weekly arts and crafts.

Recently I came upon these woodcut paintings by Lisa Brawn. Lisa carves detailed portraits into wood, generally beams of salvaged Douglas fir. Usually artists carve into wood in order to make prints from the resulting block; instead, Lisa paints the carved block itself to create one-of-a-kind portraits. She looks to pop culture for inspiration, and finds "suitably rustic and rugged subjects" in tough guys like Steve McQueen, but notes that "Sophia Loren holds her own anywhere". I think her chosen medium is perfect, since it calls to mind Christian wooden icons; it's like she's made pop culture devotionals (Saint Bullitt and Saint Sophia, natch).

Here's a selection.

It Was a Sort of Madness, Honey © 2008

Jake © 2009

You're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat © 2008

Bullitt © 2009