I have been teaching linoleum block printmaking workshops to the science party and some of the crew on the Healy for the past couple of weeks and it’s been surprisingly popular and very successful. The process involves making a drawing, transferring it to a rubber block (it’s called linoleum but it’s nothing like the kind on the floor), and using small carving tools to carve out all the white areas in the drawing. Once the block is carved it’s basically a giant rubber stamp and you use a roller to roll ink over the surface so that the un-carved areas get covered in black ink and the carved away areas remain white. Then you print the block by placing the paper on top of the inked block and rubbing the back of the paper with a tool called a baren which uses pressure to transfer the ink from the block to the paper. Preparing and carving the block is a time consuming and tricky process, but once the block is finished you can make many prints from the same block.

Today was the science morale dinner on the ship and we hung up the prints from the workshops and had a little art show. Possibly the first ever art show onboard the Healy! I’m very impressed with the results, especially considering that most of the participants had no printmaking experience at all. I wasn’t expecting so much interest in printmaking, but I think people really enjoyed the break from the usual routine and the chance to make something personal to take home.

Sophie Renaut

Pierre Coupel

Maria Pisareva

Kevin Arrigo

Caroline Guilmette

Jesse Torres

Joannie Ferland

Hannah Joy Warren