As humans we’re constantly growing and changing, losing and gaining qualities to become who we are at any given moment in time and holding out hope that one day we might reach some form of ‘completion’. I find the printmaking process echoes this beautifully as slivers of lino are cut away from a block and the artist continually asks, what needs to be removed in order to form the desired image.

In one sense the linoblock is complete when all excess has been removed yet it does not usually feature as part of the finished artwork.  Rather, the block is joined briefly with paper and ink to produce a final lasting image before being discarded.  It points my thoughts to the splitting of soul from body; the temporary and the eternal at the point of death. 

I find myself wondering, what happens to us in moments of shaping?  Do we lose fragments of who we are in order to grow or is it more like a remoulding, where rather than loss there is a change of state. As a result, slivers which were once thought of as debris have been gathered and strategically placed to echo something of the final block and print, hinting at redemption whilst also suggesting loss doesn’t always result in a negative but may in fact create a space (or transaction) allowing new growth.