linocut

linocut
Originally uploaded by crunchcandy.

Well then, my internet access is still somewhat limited, and my access to my files and images even more so- but thankfully there is Flickr where I did upload a whole lot of images before the great computer disaster happened.

This image is one the the reduction linocut's I did as part of a project about journey's. It's a version of the journey I took from LA to Oakland on the train a few years ago, and it remains in my heart as one of the best days I ever had. For a long time the idea of train journey's around America has appealed to me- having fed my brain with books by Steinbeck, Kerouac and all those other dead white men as I grew up, the idea of jumping on a train and running away across America always held some romantic allure for me.

The reality was a little different (trains in America seem to go way way slower than they do over here and there weren't any Beat poets reciting verse on the one I got on). But I can still remember how for twelve hours solid my eyes were glued to the window, watching the Pacific roll by, the volcanic rocks that looked like maltesers and arriving into Oakland in the dark to be met by Seth and taken immediately for spiral fries from Jack in the Box.

So the linocut isn't that accurate, I meant to cut the top off, instead I created a strange new coastline for California, that missed out the San Francisco bay completely, but I did rediscover a love for the slow slow process of cutting the lino (something very different to the speed at which I paint and draw), the method and smell of the printing ink, and the physicality of putting things through the press.

Today I am going to make hot water bottles for my best friend's girlfriend, a purse for my friend's mum, and hopefully get everyone's presents wrapped up at last. I wish I had a camera that worked and a computer that I could plug it into- I want to show everyone my 'Christmas Lamp' that I made- I couldn't afford (or justify) buying a tree so I decorated the standard lamp in my living room instead. In the evening, with the lamp lit, it looks even better than a tree would.