Heartthrob original hand-pulled cherry tree ring print with a natural heart-like form in black ink on white paper

Heartthrob

Original Signature Black
$150 CAD
$150 CAD
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Heartthrob original hand-pulled cherry tree ring print with a natural heart-like form in black ink on white paper
  • Heartthrob original hand-pulled cherry tree ring print with a natural heart-like form in black ink on white paper
  • Heartthrob original hand-pulled cherry tree ring print with a natural heart-like form in black ink on white paper
Heartthrob

Heartthrob

$150 CAD
$150 CAD
Select your interpretation (colour):

✓ Every Wooden Ink print is an original, hand-pulled impression.
Please allow up to one week for your print to be prepared for shipping.
If your chosen print is already available in the studio, it may ship sooner.
✩ Prints are shipped unframed, carefully rolled in a sturdy mailing tube on their full 18 × 24 inch sheet of archival paper. Frames shown are for display purposes only.
✩ Every Wooden Ink print includes a companion Tree Story Card and Species Card.

The Story of Heartthrob

Some trees need time before you understand what they are trying to say.

Heartthrob didn't.

A tornado brought this cherry tree down at my best friend Kari's cottage near Havelock, Ontario. The tree had already been dying before it fell, and by the time we cut into it, decay had begun working its way through the centre.

But the moment I saw the cross-section, none of that was what I noticed first. I saw a heart.

There it was—slightly crooked, imperfect, and unmistakable. Even the small detached branch near the top seemed to belong exactly where it had landed.

The decay at the centre has made this a difficult slab to print. The oldest wood—the heart of the tree—has softened and disappeared in places, so it simply won't take ink. Every impression carries that absence as a white space at its centre. I've come to love that part most.

The centre of a tree holds its earliest years just like our hearts do. And perhaps memory works a little like wood: the years remain part of us even when some of their details soften with time.

Heartthrob spent roughly forty years adding ring after ring around a centre it would eventually begin to lose. Then a tornado brought its life standing in the forest to an end.

And somehow, what remains looks like a heart.

Some things don't have to remain whole to remain with us.

FOREST
NOTES

Cherry develops a distinct heartwood as it matures. The older wood at the centre of the trunk gradually stops transporting water and becomes part of the tree's structural core, while the younger sapwood nearer the outside continues the work of moving water through the tree.

As a tree ages or begins to decline, fungi and other decay organisms can enter through wounds, broken branches or damaged tissue and begin decomposing that older central wood. A tree can sometimes continue growing around that decay for years, leaving sound annual growth surrounding a weakened or hollowing centre.

Heartthrob carries that history visibly. The tree was already dying before the tornado finally brought it down, and the softened wood at its centre no longer accepts printing ink. What appears as white space in every impression isn't something added to the composition—it is the part of the tree that can no longer leave an impression.

Perhaps the oldest memories are like that too: no longer perfectly preserved, but still at the centre of everything that came after.

Looking for something a little different?

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Why Hand-Pulled?

Every Wooden Ink print begins with a reclaimed tree and is hand-pulled from the original slab.

The Original Slab

The slab is the original manuscript. Carefully cut from reclaimed timber. Every print is one interpretation of the story it spent a lifetime writing.

Hand-Pulled

Every print is inked and pulled by hand using the original slab. No digital reproductions. No automated printing. Each pull carries the subtle character of the process.

Every Print is Unique

No two prints are exactly alike. Because your print is hand-pulled from reclaimed timber, slight variations in ink and pressure combine naturally to make your print uniquely yours.