Papay Solomon
J.B., 2021
PVC cut and multi-block linoleum cut
14” x 11”
$125
Printed by Santo Press, Scottsdale, AZ

While Papay Solomon puts the finishing touches on his print for the phICA Trajectory Portfolio, we seized the opportunity to inform you about the process the artists utilized in making the prints for this project with Master Printer Brent Bond of Santo Press, Scottsdale. Each of the prints is a carved relief print with the primary material used to carve into being a block of linoleum.

A linocut print is produced from a linoleum block, onto the surface of which the artist draws then cuts an image using fine steel gouges as you see Papay doing in this image. The areas of the block to be inked and printed are left uncut (in relief) while the areas of the design not intended to take the printing ink are cut away. When the cutting is complete, the block is inked and printed in a relief (platen) printing press. Brent Bond restored and uses a press previously owned by internationally-recognized artist James Turrell. Although linoleum is a floor covering that dates back to the 1860s, the linocut printing technique was used first by the artists of the Die Brücke art movement in Germany prior to World War I, between 1905 and 1913.