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strange but beautiful artist's prints
Linocut
Bookplates: naked angel
Original lino print 2004, 2.5 x 5 inches.
The commission was to print fifty bookplates for a private library. For this web image I have removed the name from the banner that the angel is holding.
The naked angel represents truth, unadorned. If people find this image problematic I suggest it might be because naked truth is problematic. T. S. Eliot said human kind cannot bear very much reality (Burnt Norton I, from the Four Quartets
As usual, my aim is to show beauty rather than to shock. In this I differ from today's cutting-edge artists, who frequently aim to shock through ugliness. However, I agree with them that it is mistaken to avoid causing offence at all costs.
Exuberance is Beauty. - from the Proverbs of Hell, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, William Blake.
Instead of incising the lines, I left the lines I had drawn and cut away the remaining lino. This is more difficult but it produces a distinctive effect.
The effect of this image depends on line only and I did not feel the need to add any colour.
To see all the stages of the design one after the other, click here and then click on each picture.
All images are copyright © Martin Dace 2005. The image on this page may be freely copied and distributed provided that the image is not altered in any way and that a link back to www.dace.co.uk is made for any web use or attribution given in any printed use and provided that it is not distributed for commercial gain and provided that a similar condition including this condition be imposed upon any recipient.
For permitted use as above I should appreciate hearing from you!
You must contact me for permission if you wish to publish or reproduce any of my pictures for commercial gain.