A Painstaking Process for Beautiful Art

It’s a painstaking multi-step approach to art, but the results are beautiful, and lifetime Eugene resident Connie Mueller is ready to show her art again at White Lotus Gallery. Journeys in Oregon: Reduction Linocut Prints by Connie Mueller begins its seven-week run June 13 with prints that reach for the vast blue-gray sky over Peoria Road right before a storm to the crystal clear waters of the Willamette River reflecting the clouds on a bright day. As Mueller notes on her website, a single linoleum block is used in the process of linocut reduction printing. After the composition is drawn onto the block with a black Sharpie, the first cuts are made in the block to remove areas that are to be white in the print. Then the first color of ink, usually a light color, is hand-rolled on the entire block with a “brayer,” the first sheet of paper is laid on top of the block, and this is rolled through the printing press. “The process of inking and printing is repeated with each paper… so, there are, say, 12 sheets of paper with a light yellow ink, and white images where the block was cut away originally,” she says. The process is repeated — the cutting, inking and printing — as many times as it takes to complete the image desired, and each time the block is cut away, it allows the next ink printed to cover only the remaining surface, allowing the colors of previous inks to be preserved.

Journeys in Oregon: Reduction Linocut Prints by Connie Mueller is June 13 through August 2 at White Lotus Gallery, 767 Willamette Street. Opening reception is 1 pm to 3 pm Saturday, June 14. Gallery hours are 10 am to 4 pm Tuesday through Saturday. More information about Mueller’s linocut reduction printing process is at ConnieMueller.weebly.com.

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