Selfie (George Johanson)

George Johanson (shown at Augen Gallery in the Pearl) is an elder statesman of the Portland arts community. In his late eighties, he is still painting up a storm and taking on new challenges. 

This self-portrait by Johanson is a reduction linotype print. His artist statement for this show includes the following:

"Invented by Picasso around 1959, this method of making a color print involves one single block instead of a different one for each color. The first color is printed, then more of the block is cut away for each succeeding color. 
Reduction prints are sometimes referred to as suicide prints since each color is printed throughout the entire edition before cutting more of the block and going on to the next color. There is no going back. 
The riskiness in this process is one of the things that draws me to the medium.
It's a mystical process. The block is being reduced by successive cutting at the same time the print is growing by successive layers of color."