The other night I discovered a linoleum piece that I had drawn on to while I was in Ft. Lauderdale for my birthday this past September. It's a small piece and apparently very easy to misplace in the pigsty that is my desk/work area because up until this week I had forgotten that it even existed. I've had another crazy work week outside of the studio which usually translates to being frustrated about not doing enough artwork, so it was the perfect project to do late night after a day of work. Cutting out an already drawn image is a bit like going into a Zen state for me. I can sit there and cut out a little piece like this in about 1 - 1 1/2 hours and feel like I've been there for 10 minutes. The printing part takes a little more focus, especially when doing it with this technique, called Chine-Cole, (not sure if that's the correct spelling). This process involves inking the linoleum first, strategically placing pieces of paper on to the inked lino. Depending on the opacity of the papers, by overlapping different color you can get all kinds of variations in colors. You have to glue any overlapping pieces so that they'll stick together and then put a layer of glue on all of the paper still exposed. You then move it to the press, place the base paper you're printing over it and run it through the press. A lot of variables here = Many disasters possible. The Gods were smiling on me last night as I printed up 5 different variations of this piece without a hitch. The nice part about this print is that I can picture myself at the exact time I was drawing the image and immediately be transported to the time, place, temperature, and mood that was involved in the initial drawing. Being that it's Winter here in NYC, it was a great reminder of a warm and wonderful vacation. If anyone is interested in purchasing a piece, let me know.
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