'Yin and Yang'- Lino Print

2nd project for my Relief Printmaking class that I took while in Tokyo.

Our assigment was linoleum relief printmaking. I've used lino before, but the lino in Japan is awesome! Sometimes called a rubber plate, the lino is much smoother and easier to cut, I think.

My main concern at the beginning of this project was to somehow change the format of the picture plane. It gets old using a basic rectangle all of the time, so I wanted to do soemthing more interesting with the space. Plus, I love long formats!

So, I ended up with the idea of depicting yin and yang, and having them upside down from one another. Yin is the girl and yang is the boy.

One issue I had with this design was the masks... I wanted Yin and Yang to each wear their side of the circle as a mask to cover part of their faces. However, when one is upside down, I had the problem that both side look the same... So, I had to debate with myself whether I should have the piece fit together when upside down or how they would be normally... I ended up just leaving it the proper way for several reasons... *sigh*

Since this is meant to be view either way, here is a print that is printed upside from this one: [link]
I like it both ways...
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Linoleum (relief) Print
oil-based ink
4 plates
2 color variations
8 print series each
~6 x 8"
February 2008