But first…
Dulltown, UK: Today’s mock Victorian expletive, made up by Charles Dickens for one of his characters (so as to not offend his readers with a real oath) is ‘Ding me!…’ It sounds quite modern to me, ding me if it doesn’t!…
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I really must set about doing some more lino prints!
Now the weather is warming up here in the Northern Hemisphere it makes it a good time to start – my little workshop won’t be as chilly, and, as we all know, lino needs to be warm to cut nicely, I usually have an iron plugged in to accommodate this if it is a bit nippy in there. I have already shown you most of the lino prints I have done, there are only two or three left for you to see.
Here’s one from last year:
This is number 1 of an edition of 12, in oil-based black Speedball ink on nice thin Japanese paper about A4 in size.
You know, I really love doing those round white dots in the sky (I use a small electric craft drill, those dots are very quick to do! Oh dear – does that sound like I’m ‘cheating’ in some way? The cat is definitely out of the bag now!) – they might be stars, but they could also be slowly descending round gobs of snow, giving the warmth and the cosy glow of a Christmas card – Hm, nice!… I like that!
It is very silly, me sitting here typing all this stuff about it – (I just can’t stop waffling on when I show you a bit of my work) – this is art, all you should need to do is to look at it and make of it what you can dear reader, I suppose you could have a peek at the title if you want some clue as to what the hell I am trying to say in this deliberately mysterious work, but then, I don’t bother to give these prints titles, I just sign them and date them, and from there on they can go off and decide themselves what they want to be.
I’ll bet you are wondering about the significance of the giant letter ‘B’.
Good! I like you to wonder…
Oh, hang on, could that be an ancient Greek temple bottom right? And could that be an ancient Egyptian obelisk (isn’t ‘obelisk’ a great word?) standing next to it?…
No… I don’t think so…
Dave Whatt 
I like this one! I shall call it “B for Bing”. Or is it Barry?
‘Bing’? – or are you being influenced by the aforementioned dings?…
Absolutely! Or Bing Crosby.
He always gave me the creeps that Bing…
I wanted to say “B is for Balderdash!” which is a very fine word that I use quite a lot, but I didn’t want it to reflect my view of your work – which is very very good. I do like that rectangular shape inside the circle at the top right – I wonder how you managed that? It all looks like something from the cover of a 60’s sci-fi comic. 🙂 B is for Bravo!
Thank you my dear!
‘Balderdash’ is fine by me!
Actually someone gave me a set of old metal stencils that they used to use in the old days for marking wooden crates, etc.There is a full alphabet of them – I did a print copying the ‘A’ on it a while ago, and this is the print with the ‘B’ – that’s as far as I’ve got… will it be the ‘C’ next, or something exotic like ‘Z’?
‘The shape inside the circle’ – Oh, once you’ve drawn it and it looks right the rest is easy.
Oh Dave…thank you for explaining that random “B” – – – I was beginning to think it was simply the alternative selection – – – would you like one from column A or one from column B? Oh, “B” please…. because Bourbons starts with “B”? No, because this little print isn’t “flat” like “A.” It has dimension, it’s hard to miss those falling blocks, no doubt a pleasant distraction from the nuclear winter rendered here. Oh dear, did I say that out loud?
Well Dana, I’m afraid you did say that out loud…
Of course those letters are only in my prints because of their shape, their elegance, and yes, their beauty… That word which people are so afraid to use these days… I’ll say it again… Beauty…
haha……I see, I think. Beauty isn’t very inclusive, is it? It’s like the most insensitive word you can use? And, yes that “B” is elegant in form…. Did you ever see the piece I did where my premise was to make explosions look like trees growing from the landscape? It must here somewhere, where did I put that? It’s titled, Summer in Gaza. I still think this untitled piece is a nuclear winter, and the “B” represents the alternative scenario. But who am I to argue with the creator????? haha
Yes Dana, ‘Summer in Gaza’ – those tree explosions are are most effective – isn’t nature clever in her use of forms?
So, my lino cut depicts a nuclear winter, and there’s me thinking that it was like a jolly Christmas card with fluffy snowflakes…
Hey ho! But that is the nature of art isn’t it? The artist does only half the job, the viewer completes it.
Oh I like that very much!
Good Job! Solid color and design!
Whoa! Thank you TWS!…
Ah, explaining art. Always a bugger.
It’s fun though…
But then your art is enigmatic and mysterious, mine has punchlines:
Explaining my art (such as it is) is, basically having to explain the joke Explaining (or speculating as to the meaning) of enigmatic and mysterious IS fun. Explaining jokes is utterly depressing; a sure fire way of killing them.
I agree, the whole idea of jokes and art is that they are supposed to connect with the audience with no need for explanation – I hate those ‘artist’s statements’ that you see pinned up on gallery walls so that you can ‘understand’ the work.