Ancient Keystone Limited Edition Linocut Print

Surrounded as it is by bits of common rockweed in Ancient Keystone, the skull of Oncorhynchus rastrosus, or the spike-toothed salmon, looks for all the world like something you could come across today on the shores of the Pacific Northwest. But the O. rastrosus is long lost to time, it’s 8’ body no longer leaping upriver to spawn new life every year. Its threatened modern-dan ancestor, the Sockeye salmon, is another story. The diminishing numbers of this keystone species of the Pacific Northwest ecosystem may yet live on into new eras if conservation efforts are successful. 

This linocut print is part of Beastie and Bone’s North American Megafauna Project, which is an exploration of ancient extinct species from throughout the North American continent that pairs their remains with common modern day flora of the areas they once lived in. Integrating these past animals back into the landscapes we encounter today in this manner, instead of presenting them as sterile fossil specimens, encourages us to look differently at the shrinking wild spaces around us, and what else may soon no longer be found there unless conservation efforts are supported.

Ancient Keystone is limited to 50 hand-pulled prints on 11"x17"  bleached renewable mulberry paper in water-based ink. Each print is signed and numbered by the artist, and sold with a certificate of authenticity.