Recently I had a birthday. Woop woop and all that. One of my presents was a starter kit for Linocut printing – and I have every intention to get some use out of it (rather than adding it to the list of birthday presents that never made it past the honeymoon period). So, introducing Cat the linocutter! Ahem…

My reasons for wanting this new skill in the first place:

1) I like the idea of hands-on printing. Screen-printing was damn good fun to learn, and I intend to do much more of it – when finances allow of course. At the Pick Me Up exhibition I recently visited, I saw a table of linocuts where you were invited to make your own print – a charming idea and they were very cute stamp-like prints.

2) I want to start selling some more items in the shop, in particular prints, greeting cards and there’s no reason I couldn’t transfer some designs onto tees, totes, cushion covers… Ooh I’m giddy thinking about the possibilities. The way I figure, it will be cheaper than sending things off to print, and I love the fact I’ll have done it all myself.

3) I love woodcuts. My university course fully taught me the greatness of the printing arts and it’s nice that in this pixelated era there are still people keeping them alive. Like this pro, Alex Gillies:

I figure linoleum is cheaper (possibly more eco-friendly!?) than wood and an easier thing to cut into with my bargain tools. So, a good starting point.

I also thought – before I begin on my gouged path – to learn me a bit of history about Linocutting. Die Brücke, a group of German expressionist artists are the ones responsible for fooling around with linoleum and

Their aim was to create art that would ridge the gap between the past and the future - hence the name ‘Die Brücke’ - literally ‘the bridge’ in German. So while they appreciated the work of past great’s such as Albrecht Dürer, they also had an affinity towards the contemporary avant-garde movements happening at the same time. I would assume most artists, especially now, look both to the past and keep their eye on the present, in order to create something new and move forward – at least I know I try to. Hopefully my linocuts will achieve something like this… and not just become a thing of birthday present’s past ;)

Here are some other lovely lino finds I’ve discovered for a little inspiration:

[caption id=”attachment_1769” align=”aligncenter” width=”600” caption=”Landon Sheely ‘Feejee Mermaid’”][/caption]

[caption id=”attachment_1770” align=”aligncenter” width=”568” caption=”Schra ‘Abstract Tree’”][/caption]

[caption id=”attachment_1773” align=”aligncenter” width=”600” caption=”Banana Paste ‘Good Luck’”][/caption]

[caption id=”attachment_1775” align=”aligncenter” width=”600” caption=”ROTTeneggy ‘Gear Matrix’”][/caption]

[caption id=”attachment_1776” align=”aligncenter” width=”600” caption=”Graven Images 426 ‘Prehistoric’”][/caption]

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