The Seer - Limited Edition 7 of 12 Print

The Poet: Arald dismounts from his charger and kneeling places the lifeless body of Maria at the Seer's feet. Arald: To you, O timeless Seer, across the world I ride To give me back the one that envious death does hide, And all my days for you I will unceasing pray. That's the beginning of Nicolae Bretan's beautiful opera "Arald." The warrior has heard that this Seer, and old pagan priest "who death forgot," was able to perform miracles, so he has brought the dead body of his beloved Maria, killed in battle, to be resurrected. The Seer gives Arald a potion (poison) which turns him into a ghost. Thus, as the sun rises, the lovers are united in death. After he has pulled off this trick, the Seer laments his own immortality: "Here I sit with crutch in hand, priest of an old creed. For ages shall I sit thus, by death forgot indeed..." Overhead two ravens soar - one white and one black. So this image came to me out of music. It's sort of a Germanic version of the Orpheus and Eurydice story, but I set the scene under the Broadway Bridge, looking across the Arkansas River toward North Little Rock. The Seer's hat must have come from a self-portrait I did in 1988 called "Man in a Paper Hat." (See additional images.) I did two paintings of this scene in 1997, this print in 2000, and the another larger painting two years later. In that last painting Arald has drunk the magic drink and is fading away. (You can watch the development of that painting and listen to the end of the opera at www.warrencriswell.com/arald-opera%26painting.html) But in this print Arald has just arrived under the bridge and is lowering Maria to the ground. It's one of the first generation of the "Criswell Linocut," when I was experimenting with colors and highlights. This is a 2-color linocut, image 7 x 5 inches, sheet 10 x 8.5 inches. There are a few left in the edition. I can ship them unmounted or matted in a white or off-white mat, 11.5 x 9.5 inches. The Criswell Linocut I began these experiments with linoleum back in 1999. Although these prints may resemble etchings, drypoints, lithographs or some strange hybrid, they are true relief prints, printed in two or more colors from linoleum blocks. I didn't invent this technique - Picasso and his printer Arnera did - but I've adapted it to my own purposes and, since nobody else in the world is doing it as far as I know, I'm calling it "The Criswell Linocut." The two most important things about this technique is that (1) I cut the designs with a drypoint needle and (2) that I print the dark color first and the light color second. This enables me to draw my image directly on the key block, just as I would draw with a pen on paper, rather than cut away everything BUT the image as in traditional relief printmaking. For more info about this, checkout www.warrencriswell.com/linocuts.html.

Printmaking:Linocuts on Paper

Artist Produced Limited Edition of:1

Size:8.5 W x 10 H x 0.1 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.