Print-making and geometric collage
When I left college, I started learning how to lino print at home during lock-down. I was still very inspired by the brutalist architecture, abstract geometric art and De Stijl artists I had been researching during my final year. I started cutting simple geometric compositions in lino, experimenting with repetition, surface texture and eventually introducing colour. I followed these experiments to what felt like their natural conclusion which was to produce abstract collages that incorporated the prints and other mixed media elements.
40cmx30cm
I enjoyed rotating and repeating my lino prints to see what image emerged. Something I wanted to do when I started learning to lino print was to really learn to cut accurately and also to get a feel for how much ink and pressure to use. I did multiple lino experiments just practicing these skills.
10cmx10cm
Lines made in my lino print by printing first onto corrugated cardboard, then printing the same block again onto paper.
30cmx21cm
An experiment where I'm thinking about layering. I have made a mono print for the first layer, then drawings with marker and fine liner, followed by lino prints on top.
23cmx12cm
An experiment with the texture of corrugated cardboard, I was interested in this texture and how the structure of the cardboard messed with how the shapes, changing how they are represented, but still recognizable.
21cmx10cm
A different composition and an experiment with colored ink. When I was making these lino prints, I was trying to get nice clean geometric shapes but with lots of directional incidental lines from the lino cutting process showing through.
19cmx14cm
Experiments with different coloured backgrounds and repeated lino prints in different orientations.
Lino print on card
21cmx10cm
Lino print on card
21cmx21cm
19cmx14cm
Trying out some textural and pattern effects on the lino block
Lino print on card, highlighter,fine-liner
12cmx12cm
11cmx11cm
The first time layering two lino prints with different colours. As in some of my other work, I really enjoy how the negative space allows the layers beneath to come through, I just find this really exciting visually and interesting to play with.
Lino print on holographic paper
16cmx14cm
15cmx10cm
Another surface exploration with this shiny holographic paper, it was very smooth and didn't have any texture but I liked the way the colours looked different from every angle. In hindsight, I would have used the lino blocks that I'd cut stripes into for these but I do like the strong contrast between the foreground and background.
I started exploring more layering/negative space ideas using this repeated circle lino cut. I used the same method of removing the inner part of the circle every time to make these incidental directional lines that show through. I previously wanted these really clean, perfect prints but I realized that the unique, slightly-different-every-time element of printmaking is what actually made it interesting to me.
23cmx20cm
I used some things I found around the house to make some backgrounds to experiment with my new negative space circle lino blocks. I've used some paint sample cards, sticky notes, highlighters and graph paper.
18cmx13cm
Adding a few more elements. I used some past lino prints layered with scrap papers, drawing over with oil pastels, highlighters and fine liner.
Not a collage I actually stuck down, but some papers that I moved around and tried different compositions with. I like this technique of not committing to one composition but trying out a few before it feels right or balanced/off balance in some way.
16cmx18cm
The first collage I made using previously printed lino prints and found papers for collaging. I didn't have many materials except for things in my pencil case like highlighters, pencils and a few oil pastels so I just used what I liked playing with their different transparencies, especially in conjunction with the black lino ink which cut right through everything.
Mixed media collage
16cmx18cm
21cmx18cm
In hindsight, looking at the repeated symbols I've used in these pieces make me think about my state of mind at the time. Check boxes remind me of days on a calendar and these tally charts feel like an obsessive count, an attempt to keep track of time passing. Although at the time of making them, these were just shapes and motifs that were on my mind.
15cmx11cm
Combining lots of lino prints together, I also included a collagraph print in red ink. I like this combination of the positive and negative with the two styles of print.
20cmx15cm
Trying out some different ink colours, using white ink and different colours I mixed up. I am using more and more different prints together as a collage. The process would be to arrange and layer the collage elements in different ways, looking for how the colours and shapes interacted. I knew that after this, I would print over the whole thing so I had that in mind when arranging the shapes too.
Mixed media collage
22cmx18cm
15cmx11cm
I feel that these collages got more and more crowded and layered as I went on. I wanted to include everything in a way that kept my eye in the image, moving through the layers. I was also trying to use everything, including scraps and off-cuts from old prints or even the tracing paper used for past mono-prints.
16cmx12cm
Sometimes I used these crossword clues like out of context titles for the collages. I think because they were quite abstract, the suggestion of a very loose theme which could be interpreted in any way was very interesting to me.
