My first linocut prints

I started experimenting with linoleum in 2007, at a time when proper materials could not be found in Romania. I first used post-Communist industrial linoleum, uneven and very thin, often carving right through it and getting my fingers all dirty. I think dirty fingers inspired me to simplify the reduction method by applying different color inks over different portions of the plate and printing it just once. Another approximation was due to the absence of a printing press, so I obtained, for the sake of art, my grandmother's old, solid spoon, once used to clean my diapers (aka pieces of cloth) and then for her terrace gardening. I still use it for small prints because I have perfect control in pressing the paper against the linocut plate.

Despite all these primitive tools and methods, I am still proud of my first linos and discovered that some of the effects I was obtaining then cannot be reproduced with proper art linoleum plates, V-shaped tools and printing press.

Holy women - linocut print

Presentation of the Virgin - linocut print

Urbanscape - linocut print