CHIRON Print

CHIRON is an original linocut print created on quality rice paper. Size is 8.5" x 11". Signed by the artist.

"In Greek mythology, Chiron was the wounded healer. He was wise, gentle, and gifted with the power to teach and heal others, but he carried a wound he could not close in himself. In astrology, Chiron marks our deepest vulnerability: the pain we inherit, survive, and spend our lives learning how to understand.

This block print is my version of Chiron.

He is a trans man looking toward the future, with top surgery scars across his chest. The scars are signs of becoming, of choosing oneself. He is guarded but still open. Hurt but still tender. His arms are held behind his back, leaving his chest exposed. The posture feels restrained, but not powerless. He is not hiding from the wound and instead letting it be seen.

While making this piece, I kept hearing the words from Mitski’s “I Love Me After You”: Let the darkness see me. The night is mine, all on my own now. I love me after you. To me, those words are about standing inside the parts of ourselves we were once taught to hide. They are about claiming the dark, not as something to fear, but as something that belongs to us too.

I chose to portray starbursts instead of ordinary stars. They feel like flashes of rupture, guidance, protection, and arrival. They represent the unseen forces that move us toward ourselves.

This piece is an ode to trans and non-binary people who have had to become their own wounded healers. It honors those who use pain as a source of teaching, helping, protecting, and loving.

The design is inspired by a 1990s celestial astrology book I was gifted as a child. The print is painted in cyan, a color between blue and green. Its clear, water-like quality gives the piece a celestial and fluid feeling, connecting the body to the sky, the starbursts, and the possibility of becoming." - Ke Martins, Artist

DETAILS
✦ Hand-printed on lightweight printmaking paper
✦ Oil-based Cranfield relief ink, color mixed by hand
✦ Hand-pulled print, numbered and signed by the artist
✦ Paper Size: 8.5” x 11” (133mm x 190mm); artwork measures 4” x 6”

PROCESS 
Each piece begins with a hand-drawn sketch, which I transfer to a linoleum block and carve by hand using fine gouges. I roll oil-based ink onto the block with a rubber brayer and print it by hand using both a glass baren and a small tabletop etching press. Each print is individually inked and hand-pulled.

PLEASE NOTE
• Each print is handmade—variations are part of what makes each one unique.
• Product colors may vary slightly due to screen settings.

SHIPPING
Packaged with care, shipped flat in a protective sleeve and backing board.

THANK YOU for supporting small local artists! ♡