The Garden of Abstract Desires

Here is a little print that was a long time in the making. I actually started this linocut almost a year ago on a trip to Austria. The original idea was capture the pattern of beech bark on a couple of trees in the garden. Essentially it showed just the 4 tree trunks. Then the plate sat there for months, untouched. A few months ago I pulled it out again and after some thinking just added some abstract lines. Then another long pause. And finally I worked on it a longer evening a few weeks ago and suddenly it turned into an interesting print. With a few final touches "The Garden of Abstract Desires" was completed.

The piece is an EV (Varied Edition) on several different kinds of handmade papers, printed in light ocher which gives the piece it's character. Every print of the edition is slightly different because some of the papers are smoother than others, have different colors, different inclusions. The photo shown is one of the smoother prints, selected to tone down the influence of paper structure on the print.



The other print was a quicky little cut on a pastic/rubber type carving board. Not particular theme there. I just sketched and cut along with reckless abandon and this little print emerged. Good little print for greeting cards and such.