These four 6x8″ lino cuts were done as a personal exploration of a print medium. I carved and printed them at home, which was certainly a different experience from working in a print studio. I really liked using the water-based ink, which I could clean in my kitchen sink and could get on my clothes without fear of staining. There is something about non-toxic, water-based media that I really love. Maybe because it seems safe? It certainly is safer than what we use in a print studio. The Blick brand ink I used was horrendous, as you can see, so I’m interested in using more liquid inks, and maybe even watercolors like are used in some types of Japanese printmaking.
I wanted to do these prints, which are based off of natural forms, because I feel so caught up in being a person existing in a body. For the past four years, I have dealt with some minor but frustrating health problems that affect what I can do in my daily life. And with the current healthcare debate, I wonder if these health problems will be more of a financial handicap than a physical one in the future. So I feel like moving outside of my body and looking at things that take a long time to form, and have a staying power and an expectancy that lasts longer than the one hundred or so years I have to live.
The first piece, my favorite of the four, is based off of the water in rivers. I find currents interesting because you can feel them, but can only see them in a drawing or map.
The second piece is based off of tree trunks or cross-sections, which I like because trees are the longest-living organisms on Earth. The events of my life, which seem so monumental to me, have an impact on so few trees. With climate change, the twenty years I’ve been alive have had more of an impact on trees than most other twenty-year piers in history, but trees still have an ability to live and survive beyond world-changing events.
The third piece is based off of the movement of smoke in the air, which, like a map of water currents, reveals the movements of a gas we can’t see.
The fourth piece is based off of grass roots and also the roots of teeth. Teeth fascinate me because they require so much upkeep in life, but are so hard to destroy after death. Like trees, they have amazing staying power.
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