Year of the Wood(block) Dragon

         Now that we’ve embarked on a new lunar year, of course we have to celebrate with some block prints of dragons.  But since I’ve been blogging long enough to have celebrated the last dragon year, you can start by going back and seeing the examples I found in 2012.

        As for 2024, I’ll start out with a New Year greeting that’s up-to-the-minute - and with a Texas twist.  This linocut print includes some other auspicious symbols in addition to the dragon (and of course the color red), but I can’t help thinking there’s just a touch of arid lizard in the look of this one!

        We’ll turn now to something more traditional: a dragon with a sage.  This dragon seems like a reasonable size to be a pet or a familiar, and I like how sage and dragon are both grinning.  The artist Gakutei specialized in pieces combining illustrations with poetry, which was often light verse or clever aphorisms.  Unfortunately, I don’t know what poem this piece is illustrating, although I’m curious!  It certainly seems like some interesting stories could be told about these two.

        Back to the lunar zodiac, but with once again a very different look, here’s another quite modern dragon.  The face looks a little cartoonish, the colors look wild and bright, and the sky looks rather stormy.  This is not your traditional dragon, and it’s certainly got plenty of verve, but I have to confess that it’s not my favorite.  Which of these dragons do you like best?  And does your answer change depending whether you’re thinking of the dragon as art, as a companion, or as a protector of the new year?

[Pictures: Year of the Dragon, two-color linocut by Jackdaw Russell, 2024 (Image from the artist’s Etsy shop JackdawFolkArt);

Sage and Dragon, woodblock print by Gakutei, c. 1825 (Image from Ronin Gallery);

The Year of the Dragon: Like the Wind, woodblock print by Gashu Fukami, 2015 (Image from Ronin Gallery).]