Lino Lady

Photo above by Anna Parry.
Thanks to the lovely Miso (and the equally lovely Tim) my work has been included in the awesome Fit to Print exhibition at No Vacancy. A great part of the exhibition has been a series of printing demonstrations where you can see gocco, screenprinting and linocuts being created in-house. As the latter is the only style of hand printing that I am half capable of, I volunteered to sit in the gallery last Sunday and make a little linocut. It was a fun afternoon, chatting with two young art students called Jess and Peter, gauging away at the lino with tools I hadn't touched in five years and stupidly cutting my finger. I actually gave my lack of expertise away even before I injured myself, but my two companions didn't seem to mind.
A scan of the unfinished and as yet unprinted lady, above. She may be a self portrait. Her ponytail is meant to double as a brush (somewhat Illustrators Australia logo style, oops!). I also don't smoke a pipe or wear a hat, and my head isn't quite THAT big, but never mind. I don't know whether I will ever finish her or print her: I actually quite like her just as she is with all of the gauges showing.

For anyone out there who lives in Melbourne and is interested in linocut printing, or any sort of printing, The Australian Print Workshop on Gertrude Street is highly recommended for its classes and facilities. And gallery, which often has higly covetable work by Aboriginal artists.