Artist Zehra Khan designs 2015 Swim for Life Image

Exactly 100 years ago artists got tired of carving into separate wood blocks for each color in a design and began using one block with a groove between the colors. This simple, ingenious method became know as the Provincetown Print. The groove became a white line, thus, the “white line woodblock print”.The influence of this tradition lives on in Zehra Khan’s provocative image created for this year’s 28^th Swim for Life & Paddler Flotilla, set for September 12. The blue and orange watercolor and line drawing shows Provincetown Harbor with playful, repetitive waves outlined in hand drawn white lines. A mysterious figure emerges with an orange bathing cap. Is he reaching for the orange star, or catching it?Provincetown’s Centennial Decade, 2010 to 2020, celebrates the remarkable events of 1910-1920: the creation of the Provincetown Print, building of the Pilgrim Monument, the founding of the Art Association and Museum, the formation of the Provincetown Players and Eugene O’Neill’s debut.Zehra Khan is a multi-media artist living in Provincetown. When she's not drawing she may be making sculptures, costumes, masks, installations, performances or films.A Pakistani-American born in Indonesia, she grew up in France and Switzerland before moving to the United States for high school.  She received a Bachelors degree from Skidmore College and a MFA from the Mass College of Art & Design at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown.Zehra is currently part of the NYC Drawing Center Viewing Program and the deCordova Museum’s Corporate Lending Program.  She has attended art residencies at Yaddo, the Vermont Studio Center, the Contemporary Artists Center, and most recently ArtLab at the Mountain Lake Biological Station through the University of Virginia. She was artist-in-residence for the Cape Cod National Seashore C-Scape Dune Shack in 2012.Zehra is represented by ArtSTRAND Gallery in Provincetown, and you can find her artwork online at www.zehrakhan.com The Swim for Life is sponsored by the Provincetown Community Compact and has raised $4M for AIDS, women’s health and the community since 1988. For information for swimmers, kayakers, boaters and volunteers, contact: thecompact@comcast.net, and www.swim4life.org Business sponsors include: Fanizzi’s Restaurant, Lobster Pot Restaurant, Seamen’s Bank, Provincetown Banner, Far Land Provisions, Boatslip Beach, Club, Marc Jacobs, Crown & Anchor, Mussel Beach Health Club.