I TOLD You to Quit Smoking! (1993)

Hand pulled by the artist from the original blocks on an Ettan etching press at Sitka, Alaska, January, 1993.

Editor's note: some prints do not feature the border. Featured in the book Raven Town AKA Sitka.

As this is by way of being a public service message (if somewhat blunt) it is an open edition to be printed on demand.

This wood engraving was inspired by the following verse which appeared in Sitka's weekly newspaper, The Alaskan, on March 16, 1895. "The O.M." was Edward Chamberlain who now and then wrote a column titled "Curio" in the paper and signed it "The Old Man." Individual prints of the wood engraving are marketed with the title, "I told you to stop smoking."

LINES ON A RAVEN PERCHED ON A SKULL

"My days they are spent in cawing,
And the night are full of my croaks, And I'm old and rugged and gnarled
Like the oldest of old, old oaks. I am black as an Alaska night
And hungry as the hungriest tramp."

But there's not enough food for a flea
On your skull, you infernal old scamp!
– The O.M.