Content-length: 5641 Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 Sonia Kovitz Linoleum Block Prints

"I met Sonia over the 'net several years ago on a Bitnet music discussion list. She and I were both struggling 'basement musicians,' and we used to send each other tapes of our latest creations (if that's not too kind a word). One day, a particularly large package arrived in my mailbox from Sonia, and inside was a mind-blowing assortment of art posters... Manet, Van Gogh. More importantly, she had included several of her own linoleum block prints, and I was quite taken with them all. I believe you will be, too."
-- Jeff Preston, Vice President, ADdimension

A few words about the prints

"Making a block-print is like a trip Through the Looking Glass because the printed design is a mirror image of the design you cut into the linoleum. I once made a block of Hebrew text. In order to get the letters to come out right I set up a mirror to reflect the text. Then I sketched the letters as they appeared in the mirror directly onto the block. This was also tricky because Hebrew script reads from right to left instead of left to right. It's a good thing I'm a dizzy dame or I might not have been able to figure this out.

"Not only the design but the values are reversed. While you are working, the areas exposed after cutting away the linoleum appear dark and the linoleum surfaces that remain are light by comparison. Then when you print with black ink on white paper, the lights and darks change places. But it's also interesting to print with light ink on dark paper.

"Another tricky side of block printing is controlling the blade. I enjoy the resistance of the linoleum and it's the struggle to control the cutting line that gives the design its energy. Of course there are minor and major disasters when your blade skids across the surface leaving a scratch or a gash, but then you get to figure out ingenious ways to work the error into the design.

"I always start by sketching directly on the block's surface, not on paper, and the sketch is pretty rough. I like to leave a lot of room for improvisation while I'm engaged in the actual cutting. The element of the unexpected along with the physical challenge of digging into the linoleum is the main reason block-printing appeals to me.

"There is no thrill like printing a block for the first time. I've been convinced more than once that a block was a total failure -- pure chaos, a bunch of messy, meaningless lines and spaces -- but the print has turned out fine... different from what I thought I was doing, and often better.

"At best you're not so much cutting into the block as setting something free. As John Lee Hooker said about the blues, 'it's in him and it's got to come out.' You learn to do what you can and then stand aside and let the rest happen by itself."

-- Sonia Kovitz, August 1995
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