Artist Bio
Cape Ann artist printmaker Coco Berkman creates images that delight her and hopefully others through the process of linoleum printmaking.
Inspired by literature, the natural world and the free play inherent in drawing, she uses sharp japanese tools to carve images into sheets of linoleum and then prints them one color at a time over several months to complete an edition.
Coco studied printmaking at several studios throughout the United States, Ireland and South Korea. A long standing member of The Boston Printmakers, her work is in the collection of The Dublin Writers Museum, The Art Complex Museum in Duxbury and in several private collections.
Main Subject
Narrative
Materials and Techniques
There is so much information in a hand pulled print. The initial drawing has been conceived and then drawn over and over and over. The drawing is then cut up, different elements have been torn away, other elements taped in from another sketch. The new drawing traced. The traced drawing erased and torn and taped. Weeks later, sometimes months, drawing done. Love the drawing! The drawing is transferred to a fresh sheet of golden cut lino that’s been squared precisely, sanded.
The carving commences. With my favorite process, reductive printmaking. Oil based inks are applied one color at a time onto sheets of beautiful cotton paper and hung onto a wall to dry. Carve out the next stage with Japanese tools. Never know the colors I’m going to use until I’m right there in the moment. Print next color. Hang to dry.
