Prints for Ukraine

At the beginning of 2022, Russian invaded the Ukraine. As so many others have done, my heart reached out to the Ukrainian people.

I didn’t have money to donate, but I have art.

And I had a linocut block already carved of a bleeding heart.

I decided to print an edition of blue and gold and yellow and blue, for the yellow and blue flag colors of Ukraine, and to donate 50% of proceeds to a charity benefiting the Ukrainian people.

Yellow & Blue Edition

Blue & Gold Edition

What is a linocut and how are they made?

For a lot of people, linocut relief printmaking is a something they have never been exposed to before. I love showing off the process and teaching workshop on relief printmaking.

Relief printmaking is a method old masters developed to make copies of a single artwork, long before the days of the computer and our modern printers. Their methods were as curious as they were beautiful. Relief carving is just one of many.

“Linocut” is a term denoting that the surface that was carved into is a linoleum surface. The videos here don’t show the carving process, but with sharp tools, a design is carved out.

Next, as can be seen in the videos here, special inks are rolled out, using a brayer, and then rolled over the carved linoleum surface. The paper is then lined up and pressed against the inked block.

At this point, the paper and block can be sent through a very expensive press, or it can be done by hand. This edition, I did by hand, “burnishing” the ink into the paper, an act of rubbing the back of the paper with a wooden spoon or special tool called a baren.

The most satisfying part for me is peeling the paper off of the block and seeing the relieved piece.

Relief prints are typically signed with pencil below the inked image, with the title and the edition and number in the edition. Only the best printings make it into the edition, with slightly defected ones becoming postcards.