A limited edition, four colour reduction linocut in purple and lilac with metallic gold printed in oil based ink on Fabriano Rosaspina 280 gsm weight paper. The gold shimmers in natural and ambient light. The lettering is printed in a very dark blue though shows up black in the photographs.

A reduction cut linoprint is when each colour that has been printed is carved away. This means that there is virtually nothing left on the block after printing the last colour, so the block can not be printed again.

This print started with the phrase "Print Isn't Dead". Used by People of Print, (a print organisation Cally is a member of) it's a rallying cry that's become even more poinant against the rise of AI in Art. The need for hand crafted becomes more pressing in the face of something so faceless and devoid of humanity.

"I began thinking of how we are always eager to embrace what we see as progress, often at a great cost-the damage is done before it is too late. We have done this to our natural world, driving many species to extinction and often it has been due to pure greed. So I began to researching extinct and endangered flora and fauna, not expecting to find so many. It was very sobering. I read the back story on each one in this image, and combined them, staged, within the lettering. The final metallic gold alludes to the myth of King Midas and his greed which turned everything to gold, but in turn destroying it all in the process."

The flora and fauna included in this print are clockwise, left to right:
St. Helena Olive, Titan Arum (native to Sumatra, very few are now found in the wild, most are in botanical gardens like Kew Gardens) the Carolina Parakeet, Cry Violet flower, the Cooksonia plant, the Japanese Honshu Wolf, the Jamaican Sunset Moth, the Silphium flower, the Laughing Owl, the Large Copper Butterfly, the Black Mamo bird, the Apple Bumblebee (became extinct in Kent, UK), the Long-Tailed Hopping Mouse, the Dodo, the Franklin tree plant, the Chocolate Cosmos (extinct in the wild), and the Thylacine.

Image size: 30.5 x 24.5 cm.
Paper size: 42 x 38.5 cm.
Variable edition of 12 (only 5 exists in this colourway), numbered with EV (edition variable), titled and signed.

A variable editon (or EV edition variable) means that the artist has deliberately changed something during the edition when printing from the same block, and in this case it's the colour.

A lover of the natural world, Cally's prints are inspired by nature and folklore. She is based in London, but is constantly drawn to the beauty of nature and its place within the world. She began producing etchings and collagraphs at art college, and came to linocut printmaking much later. She really fell in love with the process of linocut; something about the carved line as a way to translate her sketches, and to explore pattern and texture.

Cally Conway

Persephone Print

Anemone Print

Deer and Hawthorn Print

Clematis Star Print

Yuletide

Embrace

Realm of the White Horse

November, the Heath

Devotion Print

Tigre Print

Print Isn't Dead Print

The Three Comets in Gold on Red Print