Dead Fly 26 Stamps toward a major work

Dead Fly stamps

Linoleum cuts painstakingly executed 3" x 3"

Dead Fly 26

Ink on a Post-It 

3"x 3"

     Part of the artistic process: here are three linoleum cuts of the three views of the original dead fly. It took some time, as well as figuring out how to make a stamp that would work for the larger piece I had in mind.  I hadn't done any linoleum cuts for years and actually found the process very relaxing, almost Zen-like. The vinyl cut easily and the little tool set I got at Michael's Art Store worked very well. I needed fifty dead flies for the large piece and figured stamping the canvas would work better than trying to paint each dead fly free hand. Then of course, I had to figure how to make a working stamp for this. Using contact cement I glued the cuts to blocks of a 2"x 4". Then did a sample and thought, Hm, that looks pretty good! No sense throwing it away. It is what it is - the first proof for the larger piece. Matted and framed it will look great! Might try using the stamped print on clothing at some point.