Louisville-based printmaker Emily Ciecka creates her largest and most complex reduction print to date, a five-layer piece featuring a Killdeer protecting her chicks in a field of poppies, inspired by a friend’s story of watching over a nesting bird during a difficult time.
A friend sent Emily Ciecka a photograph of a Killdeer, then shared the story behind it. During a hard season in her life, she had returned each day to check on the mother bird and her eggs, finding comfort in their quiet resilience. The bird gave her hope. What she did not know was that, in watching over them, she was also being watched over herself.
“That story stayed with me,” Ciecka says. “It made me think about how protection looks different depending on where you are, but it is always rooted in the same act of love and care.”
Layers of Devotion is a five-layer reduction print, the largest and most complex piece Ciecka has made to date, depicting that Killdeer mother at the centre of a field of poppies, her chicks beneath her. The reduction process, where each layer is carved from the same block in sequence, mirrors the subject directly: protection changes shape across seasons, requiring patience, intention and trust in the process rather than control of the outcome. With three layers completed and two remaining, the print is still in progress, and the making of it has taught Ciecka its own lesson in resilience.
“The process itself has shown me that you have to commit to each layer without fully knowing what the next one will bring,” she says. “That uncertainty is part of it. So is the trust.”
Emily Ciecka creates custom artwork, brand identities and murals rooted in traditional mark-making, beginning with hand-drawn ink and printmaking.
Website: inkpeninkart.com Instagram: @inkpenink
Layers of Devotion, in progress. Five-layer reduction print. Layer three of five complete.
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