“Caja de Mosca” is my first attempt at a lino cut print. This isn’t the first time I have worked with the fly box theme. I painted “Spanish Fly Box” and “Fly Box” in acrylic last year for the LCVA Box Show. And, I’ve done a few watercolors depicting streamer flies. I’m somewhat pleased with how this turned out. It wasn’t as difficult to cut the linoleum as I thought it would be. That might have more to do with just having brand new sharp cutting tools. I decided to go with the representational look of a fly as opposed to trying to cut them realistically. One of the reasons for that is my influence from studying Aztec imagery. But, when I finished the final design I thought it looked more like Native American art from the Pacific Northwest. As for the obvious cutmarks on the print, those were intentional. I wanted it to look like a lino cut. I looked at several relief prints before I started and liked the style of leaving cut marks. I think it gives it more of a human touch. If I didn’t leave cut marks one might ask why I just didn’t create it in Photoshop? Or, one might just assume it was done in Photoshop. I wanted to leave some evidence that it was done by hand, or could have been done by hand. One of the beauties of cutting block in my opinion is that anyone can do it. It seems these days that you have to fork over a lot of money to get your work reproduced, which is why I rarely reproduce any of my work. And, that’s a subject for another blog. Anyway, these “Caja de Mosca” prints will be auctioned off at the LCVA’s 4th Annual Box Show. A few of them will also be auctioned off for the Zonta Organization to help advance the status of women worldwide.
Caja de Mosca, 5″x7″ linocut print
25 Tuesday Jul 2006
Posted in Linocut, printmaking
Goyo Fly Fishing 