Today, while my flooring is being replaced, I’m hanging out at Melissa’s. I’ll settle in upstairs to mark papers, which need to be returned tomorrow. Meanwhile, Melissa will be downstairs, putting finishing touches on linocuts and running the blocks through her press. She’s getting ready for the opening of “Paso a Paso,” the exhibit of her linocuts based on the six-week, 500-mile trek she made last fall across northern Spain along the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrim route dating back to the 9th Century.
I always like her work, but I am absolutely in love with this series of prints, which combine the medieval and the mystic with the contemporary, all set in the wide expanses of the Spanish plains. The last six months or so, I’ve had the pleasure of watching all these images come into being, seeing Melissa carve away at the blocks and hearing her talk about her ideas and recount her stories of the pilgrimage.
Here’s “Entering Castrojeriz.”
And “Stray Dog Sleeping in an Albergue Doorway.”
If you like these, head on over to her web site, where you can see eight more of the twenty or so prints that will make up the show. (That number’s not set in stone because she keeps getting new ideas even as she races to perfect and print the blocks she has carved.)
Beautiful prints.
They’re brilliant. I did loads of linocuts when I was studying for my art O-level, many moons ago, so I know how tricky they are!
My brother (http://www.slowlydownward.com/) has done a series of them (very lucratively for him), which I love. I have 3 of his screenprints. Some of Melissa’s work really reminds me of my brother’s.