"After Katrina II" Linocut

I just finished printing a little linocut for the Florida Printmakers Print Exchange. The subject matter might appear a bit macabre, but the print was inspired by a photo I saw in ArtNews. As a matter of fact, the New Orleans Museum of Art itself suffered only relatively minor damage during and after Hurricane Katrina because, luckily, that building stands on a slightly higher elevation than most of town. So while signs guiding you to the museum might indeed have been mostly submerged, the museum itself wasn't.

This print is "After Katrina II" because I made a first version for the letterpress class I'm taking at foothill college. As so often, when you practice, you get better (surprise, surprise) and "After Katrina II" is -- IMHO -- the much better piece. It is done on a gray linoleum without burlap backing. I keep hearing it's really linoleum, although I have a suspicion that this material is actually some kind of vinyl. It cuts very well but small slivers sometimes don't want to break off and you have to pull them till they snap (the material is sort of rubbery). I found that I can do very exact lines in this material, but it doesn't print as nicely as some of the other linoleum I have.