Melancholy Happy
Limited edition linocut print (unframed)
22.5 x 15 cm (printed area)
Number of prints in the edition: 20
Melancholy happy is the second print in an ongoing series called The Happy Tree. The series teases out some of the different ways in which happiness can be defined, the prints themselves forming a nascent typology of happiness. Two happies (the first print in the series) explores the notion of forbidden fruit; Melancholy Happy considers music.
I have a preference for music which some might see as mournful or melancholic yet which, defined by a very full emptiness, gives me a lift. Think Arvo Pärt, for example, or Hania Rani and Dobrawa Czocher, or the ECM catalogue. I have sought to represent this delight, this ‘peculiar’ happiness through the peculiar itself. A tree stands in the sea, fish swim through its branches, a finch looks on with a wry smile. Each resits its definition.
Melancholy Happy is limited to 20 prints, each of which I have pressed with a silver spoon to sheets of 250 gsm Somerset Satin. The sheets are hand-torn to create faux deckles and each sheet measures approximately 30.5 x 22 cm. The ink used is Hawthorn’s Stay Open carbon black. In pressing Melancholy Happy I resisted the concept of blanket white in the cleared ground and there are therefore small variations between each print in the edition.
Limited edition linocut print (unframed)
22.5 x 15 cm (printed area)
Number of prints in the edition: 20
Melancholy happy is the second print in an ongoing series called The Happy Tree. The series teases out some of the different ways in which happiness can be defined, the prints themselves forming a nascent typology of happiness. Two happies (the first print in the series) explores the notion of forbidden fruit; Melancholy Happy considers music.
I have a preference for music which some might see as mournful or melancholic yet which, defined by a very full emptiness, gives me a lift. Think Arvo Pärt, for example, or Hania Rani and Dobrawa Czocher, or the ECM catalogue. I have sought to represent this delight, this ‘peculiar’ happiness through the peculiar itself. A tree stands in the sea, fish swim through its branches, a finch looks on with a wry smile. Each resits its definition.
Melancholy Happy is limited to 20 prints, each of which I have pressed with a silver spoon to sheets of 250 gsm Somerset Satin. The sheets are hand-torn to create faux deckles and each sheet measures approximately 30.5 x 22 cm. The ink used is Hawthorn’s Stay Open carbon black. In pressing Melancholy Happy I resisted the concept of blanket white in the cleared ground and there are therefore small variations between each print in the edition.
Limited edition linocut print (unframed)
22.5 x 15 cm (printed area)
Number of prints in the edition: 20
Melancholy happy is the second print in an ongoing series called The Happy Tree. The series teases out some of the different ways in which happiness can be defined, the prints themselves forming a nascent typology of happiness. Two happies (the first print in the series) explores the notion of forbidden fruit; Melancholy Happy considers music.
I have a preference for music which some might see as mournful or melancholic yet which, defined by a very full emptiness, gives me a lift. Think Arvo Pärt, for example, or Hania Rani and Dobrawa Czocher, or the ECM catalogue. I have sought to represent this delight, this ‘peculiar’ happiness through the peculiar itself. A tree stands in the sea, fish swim through its branches, a finch looks on with a wry smile. Each resits its definition.
Melancholy Happy is limited to 20 prints, each of which I have pressed with a silver spoon to sheets of 250 gsm Somerset Satin. The sheets are hand-torn to create faux deckles and each sheet measures approximately 30.5 x 22 cm. The ink used is Hawthorn’s Stay Open carbon black. In pressing Melancholy Happy I resisted the concept of blanket white in the cleared ground and there are therefore small variations between each print in the edition.