I’ve never written a blog before. It’s been on my things to do list for months now, but it’s taken the Covid-19 pandemic to make it happen. I’ve reluctantly exercised, washed the floors and refrigerator, cleaned the carpets as well as all the slots in all the screws throughout the house, sewn face masks, and Face Timed with family so often that my 19 month old granddaughter knows how to initiate and end the conversation. ‘Write a blog’ remains one of the few things left to do. So, here goes…
I must confess that I’ve stretched the truth a bit when I said that there was little left to do. There’s one thing that I not only love doing, but find that I am doing more often in self- isolation – printmaking. I have been carving, printing, and selling linocuts (my preferred form of printmaking) for over 40 years. I love the high contrasts and spontaneous nature of the linocut. I also find it to be a wonderfully democratic art form. It does not require a studio; a kitchen table will serve. It requires few tools, none of them costly. Even after 40 years I still prefer Speedball cutters to finely-forged micro-tools. Likewise, the linoleum, inks, brayers, and paper are relatively inexpensive. And a press, while lovely to have, is not at all necessary. A spoon or smooth stone and a good arm should suffice. I guess you can call the linocut a Luddite’s art form. But this doesn’t prevent it from requiring skill or hampering artful expression, or invalidating stunning outcomes.
But again, I fear I may have misrepresented myself. Despite the fact that I - like everyone else, I hope - am physically distancing myself from others, I am not creating linocuts alone. In fact, I have ten friends – all artists and all women – who are working with me. And this is the main purpose of my blog – to tell you what we are doing together while we are apart.
Prior to Covid-19, the 11 of us would meet on the first Monday of every month, something we’d been doing for about four years. We shared stories, techniques, laughter, and a great deal of prizewinning art work. We also shared challenges. We challenged each other for instance, to ‘create a square linocut,’ ‘create a three block linocut’, create a linocut that tells a story,’ ‘create a linocut in which the chatter matters.’ And once a month those of us who rose to the challenge would share our work. It was amazing to see how differently each of us approached the problem, and it was a terrific learning opportunity. This March it seemed that all the monthly fun was over. And in a way it was.
We are no longer meeting once a month as you might suppose. Instead, because time has expanded for us all, we are meeting and challenging ourselves once a week. We have quadrupled our commitment to each other and to the linocut. In addition to the specific challenges that we design for ourselves, we are learning to work more quickly, to think less and trust our muses more. Every Friday, we share our prints with one another and think of a new challenge for the week to come. It is a wonderful way to let go, to play, and to work without needing to justify the time spent or the final outcome. We now have the luxury of making art for its own sake – no strings attached. (All the galleries are closed after all, and all the art fairs have been cancelled.) And the best part is that we’re doing it together. We still get to admire our various interpretations of the same challenge. But now, because our challenges are so condensed, we also get to better understand our strengths and the techniques that we still need to be master. For me it’s registration.
OK. I realize that I’ve been talking far too long. It’s time to show you what I’ve been talking about and what we all have accomplished in this time of Covid-19. Our collective creativity ignites my own.
This first set of prints is in response to the challenge, “create your own virus in a 5” x 5” format using 2-3 colors.
While I don’t look forward to more self- isolation, I do realize, more than ever, the value of my artful friends. To everyone reading this blog, be well and stay connected and creative.
Laura
Challenge # 1 - Design a virus
(for detailed info on each print, please see Challenge #1 under The Challenges)
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