Never More Raven

I met up with a friend in January with the suggestion that we try out some printmaking with linoleum (also known as linocut).

For this project, I had a vague idea of what I wanted to do. Something Poe-related that I could make for my mum who has been having some long-lasting health issues. Initially I was thinking about doing a Poe bust, but that seemed too complicated and, from my online searches, has already been done ad infinitum. I didn't want to copy an existing print, and it seemed too complicated for a first attempt to do a drawing from a portrait photo and render it into something that would look good in lino.

So I settled on doing something raven-themed. After some more online searching for reference, I settled on something that had a good pose, and started freehand drawing it in my sketchbook. I was going to do the full body, but I got the proportions wrong on the head, so I scaled the body up to match and skipped the feet. Needless to say, I didn't end up even getting to the carving that night, but I got a good start on the drawing.

The last time I did a linocut was in high school (if not middle school) and it was a tiny little square that I carved a weird fish with a mohawk into (maybe it was just a really rad, bright orange mohawk-shaped dorsal fin). So it may very well have been two decades since I last did this. And the one I did wasn't very good at all.

But two decades is a long time to develop as an artist, even if you're not regularly practicing your skills and even if you're not familiar with the medium. And it doesn’t even matter if you’re “good”. What does matter… is whatever matters to you. Whether that’s just having fun and winging it, or being able to express yourself, to make a statement, to illicit an emotional response, or if that means being able to accurately represent something, capture and reflect its essence. You get to choose what your art means to you. And other people will get to choose what it means to them - their experience being molded by their perception of the world.
And on rare occasion, intent and reception align.

But art is meaningful regardless of the audience. The process alone is a worthy endeavour for your own sake even if you never finish the piece or it doesn’t turn out the way you wanted. You grow from it. You learn more about yourself. You are ~alive~ and proving it. Even if no one else sees it, even if it only exists in the moments in which it is created and then disappears into the æther, it’s still worth it because you got to express it and experience it. Your expression is meaningful and you are worth the time and effort it takes. You are worth it. You are worthy.

…I tell to myself, a nobody hobby artist with self-esteem issues.

Art is an extension of your perception that is physically expressed into the world. In the act of creation you are literally changing the world. That’s not really any different than being alive since you have an impact on the world regardless, simply by living in it. But art feels more intentional than that, and is a deeply personal thing. Anyone can live; Not everyone creates.

It’s an opportunity to make magic. We have a thought, and we distill it through our minds, through our bodies, and into a tangible substance. Whether that be through our bodies in interpretive dance or in playing an instrument, or through our voices when we act out a character or sing, or through our hands - drawn, painted, sculpted, carved, written… - onto any myriad of mediums.

All of that to say that I didn’t know how well this thing was going to turn out, but I knew it was going to be fun anyway and I was excited about the prospect of getting to create something new and different.. To learn something kind of new (or relearn something old), and to be able to make a custom thing for someone I love.