The three of us were in the middle of one of our innumerable work breaks when the topic of linocut came up. I had no clue what it meant and had not even heard of it before then. Dwarka had incidentally bought a couple of linoleum sheets along with a tool set a few weeks back to try it out at home and Sriparna was all too eager to take a closer look at the materials, which eventually landed on my desk too. And so in June of 2016, with a sheet in front of me and a Speedball cutter in my hand, off I went carving, without thinking of what I wanted to make and without first making a rough pencil sketch on the linoleum sheet. Some mountains, a pine forest and the moon, seen through a window, was my first lino-art. That’s what the carved out lino-stamp looked like although in print it bore a closer resemblance to a one-eyed monster with a terrifying set of craggy teeth.

I was instantly hooked; to the way carved out areas unexpectedly managed to come alive in prints through whimsical lines full of character and dimension; to the feeling of old these linoprints evoked; and to the disparate areas of involvement — sketching, carving, printing — this craft requires. Although I haven’t been as prolific as I would’ve loved to, I hope this page inspires me to change that. So keep coming back to check out newer linoprints in future.