Dying, Laughing Linocut Print

The first edition of 17, numbered and signed prints. The paper options for this first edition are white or blue handmade paper, as well as Lokta paper.

Printed on handmade paper made from recycled paper shreds. Also printed on Lokta paper.
What is Lokta paper?
Lokta paper is created from the bark of the Daphne Papyrus bush, which only grows in the Himalayas at elevations of 6500 feet. The inner bark is removed, but the root structure is not harmed and regrows, making this a completely sustainable resource!

A lover was telling his beloved
how much he loved her, how faithful
he had been, how self-sacrificing, getting up
at dawn every morning, fasting, giving up
wealth and strength and fame,
all for her.

There was a fire in him.
He didn’t know where it came from,
but it made him weep and melt like a candle.

“You’ve done well,” she said, “but listen to me.
All this is the decor of love, the branches
and leaves and blossoms. You must live
at the root to be a true lover.”

“Where is that! Tell me!”

“You’ve done the outward acts,
but you haven’t died. You must die.”

When he heard that, he lay back on the ground
laughing, and died. He opened like a rose
that drops to the ground and died laughing.

That laughter was his freedom,
and his gift to the eternal.

As moonlight shines back at the sun,
he heard the call to come home, and went.

When light returns to its source,
it takes nothing
of what it has illuminated.

It may have shone on a garbage dump, or a garden,
or in the center of a human eye. No matter.

It goes, and when it does,
the open plain becomes passionately desolate,
wanting it back.

-Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi

Every single one of my prints is hand-printed and not a reproduction.
There are many different printmaking techniques.
Traditional printmaking techniques include relief printing, lithography, intaglio printing, and screen printing. At the moment, I prefer linocut printmaking which is a type of relief printing. All of my prints are created using this process.
First I start by drawing the image desired to carve onto a block of linoleum. Areas to remain the color of the surface being printed on are carved from the block first. Then the ink is rolled onto the uncut surface of the block. I then lay the paper on top of the block, first attaching the tabs that hold the paper in place so that each time I lay down the paper the image is transferred with complete registration. When the paper is removed the image then appears in reverse.