Q3 Linoleum Print

I always wanted to print my own really cool design. Honestly, I never thought past that so the design was not thought of until I sat down to do my sketch. This piece in particular is a result of my mind wandering. I could not think of a topic, so I thought “what if I base my work around my thinking.” This is why the work outside of the creature thinking is very abstract: half of the time when I’m thinking I may not be thinking of anything at all, I’m really just zoned out and really heavy into my mind at the moment. I wanted to portray this in my print and I feel as though that went well. I believe it even conveys that exact theme perfectly as my peer reviewer saw my work and instantly thought “Is the title ‘Imagining’ or something like that?”

Although I am mostly proud of my final product, the process was very frustrating. After two days of working to cut my channels, I found that they were nowhere near thick enough to print as I wanted them to. This meant that I had to do a lot more work and really had to focus on honing the skills involved in this. Channeling IS SO CRUCIAL to printmaking, without it everything else is futile. Just being able to finally produce an acceptable print is an accomplishment I am proud of and the finished piece really fits into my collection of work. I usually do abstract art so this is no exception, however it is a different art style than I am used to which makes it unique.

A while ago I met an artist named Antonio (you can find some of his work here https://twitter.com/SantosTheArtist/media) whose style reminds me of what I aim to create. His surreal style is my mind’s first example of abstract when I think of the term as it applies to art. He uses realistic figures with very strange backgrounds and designs which I tend to do as well.