The Lamia (original linocut)

THE LAMIA is a linocut version of an engraving in Edward Topsell’s History of Four-Footed Beasts and Serpents (1658). The book purports to be full of actual animals, and mostly is, so I was delighted to find documentation of this gorgeous and not-at-all-imaginary creature on p. 353. I spent a lot of time with her the week I was drawing and carving this block, and I gotta say, I think her reputation has been unfairly impugned. So what if she devours a naughty child now and then, or eats the occasional lover? It’s all Zeus’s fault, as usual. She’s here for you (and John Keats) when you’re feeling just a little bit lethal. This is an open and variable edition, so prints are signed but not numbered.

Natural : 10 x 8 inch paper, image is approximately 5 x 7 inches. Signed, unnumbered.
Green: approximately 5 x 7 inches. Signed on the back, unnumbered.

This original linocut print has been created with oil-based Cranfield inks in our studio in Blue Hill, Maine, from a hand-drawn and carved block in battleship gray linoleum. Signed and dated by the artist. Black on natural and blue on natural are printed on Japanese gampi fiber Kitakata paper. The smaller black version on sage green is printed on handmade paper from recycled fiber, made by another artist here in Maine. Because each print is an original, please expect minor variations in the embossing, texture, and inking as compared to the samples shown. These are unique characteristics of the hand-printing process that make your print one of a kind.