hiding little lies
This is a lino-cut I did for my printmaking class (it’s like a woodcut except on linoleum). It’s my first attempt at relief printing, and I’m rather happy with how it turned out. Of course it didn’t fit in the scanner, so I had to stitch a couple of images together, you can see the seams in places, sorry.
The inspiration for the image came from the medium. Most of the illusions center on confusing the interpretation of an area as solid or empty space. Since it’s a carving, everything is either negative or positive space, either I carved it out or left it. I liked the way those two concepts played off each other. During the presentation one of my classmates said he was impressed with “all the little lies” I worked in. I really like that way of putting it, “little lies”. I like doing these sorts of Escher type drawings but I’ve never come up with a good way to describe them, or what it is I’m doing. I’m creating lies, small ones you have to look closely to find. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about go look again, closely. I’m always surprised how many people don’t notice anything wrong with pictures like this.)
The trees are bristlecone pines, the oldest living species of anything on Earth. They’re found at high altitudes on dry, rocky ridges where the wind twists them into strange forms. The wind also sandblasts them, until most of the bark is gone and they look dead, except they’re not. I figured if anything could live in this strange place I’d created, it would be those trees.
Fantastic print.