I Want My Friends Safe Linocut Print • 8x10 Black On White • Queer Art Print • Queer Divinity Series

Hand carved block cut print, 8x10 98lb white paper. It reads “I WANT MY FRIENDS SAFE” with a single crying eye. Frame not included. The variant nature of this print style can be seen in the second and third photos, none are exactly the same! •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• My note on this piece: My queer friends. My trans friends. My friends who are POC. My disabled friends. My friends with mental illness. Safe from cancer, and from COVID. This print was quite literally made of blood, sweat, tears. It was born from my anxiety and anger. I started this carve while waiting for election results. I wanted to hold my friends. I wanted to scoop everyone up and keep them safe. The election brought home something I already knew, that Trump was just a symptom of the hate and bigotry that has always been in the world. While physically making this, in my first attempt I made a silly mistake, which was forgetting to mirror my text on the block. This was my largest cut to date (it’s an 8x10) and I felt like such a FOOL, and so very tired. I decided to push through that disappointment and give it a second go. It was just an opportunity to tweak the design a little. So I’m carving block number two, my girlfriend says “ahh be careful you’re going to cut your hand that way” as I grip it the less safe, but more efficient way. Like I have hours of carving under my belt now. I’m totally fine, right? 😏 Not 20 goddamn minutes later, I jam a blade riiight into my middle finger. I go to the kitchen to get a paper towel. It’s not hurting much, but it is bleeding a lot. I ask Kat to go get some bandages from the bathroom, and then I start getting sweaty and sit down on the kitchen floor and I pass out. Yes, I learned my lesson in safety the hard way! I got it bandaged, drank some water, and kept going. My finger is pretty much healed now, and I finished the block cut without any more incidents. Making this print felt like a little plea to the universe. A prayer. A sigil. The process made it feel like a lesson in perseverance. I hope y’all like it.