The Forgotten Files: Leopard Linocut

Recently I finished a very large archival endeavor.  I went through 20 years of artwork, made digital copies, organized everything chronologically, purged things that definitely don’t have a place anywhere anymore, and placed book illustrations into their respective archival boxes.  It was exhausting.

Much of my childhood artwork was lost when my family was in the military; we had weight restrictions on what could be shipped when we moved and artwork often didn’t make the cut.  Of what’s left, some work still makes me smile, but a lot of it (from my teenage years especially) makes me cringe from embarrassment.  The next logical step was to post it here for all to see! 

This particular piece isn’t so bad: it’s from 1997 and is probably the first linoleum block print I ever made.  I remember being a sophomore in high school, shakily carving the linoleum with a cutting tool in my right hand and trying awfully hard not to accidently steer it into my left.  Fortunately, Ms. Weinstein, my art teacher who is still a great friend after all these years, was pretty adept at handling those accidental self-stabbings.  We used to lay the linoleum on the classroom heater since it was softer and easier to carve when warm. 

I’m pretty sure I used a reference photo from a nature magazine as inspiration for this.  I still rather like the roughness of the border and that you can tell what the animal is, but I wish I had tried harder to capture the animal more realistically.  This piece makes me want to take up the linoleum cutting tools again, if only just for fun.

Up next week: My “Emo” Phase…

Comments

[Chandler]

I love it! I have a similar story—very little of my childhood art remains, because that box was missing one military move...

I'm planning to do some kid-art posts soon, too! We seem to be on the same wavelength.

[Bluestocking]

That's too bad you had to leave stuff behind.

[chris v]

I like this. It has a neat trim; fun to see old stuff. Like the new blog!

[kirk]

I was just thinking of giving this stuff a go myself. I know exactly what you mean about looking back on earlier work. Way to get organized though.