Yoga Art

I have practiced yoga in some form for a couple of decades. My brother found an old yoga book from the 60’s when I was a teenager, and I was intrigued by all the strange postures. I learned the sun salutation sequence and practices it regularly. At that time, in the 90’s, yoga was an exotic treat for a teenager in Alabama.

Yoga has often been an inspiration for my art. I used a back bend posture as a basis for a drawing that was used to make linocut prints. This printing process involves carving a design into a piece of linoleum, inking the linoleum, then transferring the design to paper. The linoleum I used was mounted on a piece of wood. The drawing is transferred to the linoleum, and the areas that are to be white are carved away. When the linoleum is ready to print, ink is appplied to the linoleum in multiple layers. I printed these using a printing press. Linocuts are usually a limited edition. I did two editions of six.

I also created unique prints by printing the linocut parts in various orientations. Once inked, these had to be handprinted with a baren. The baren is rubbed on the back of the paper until the ink has transferred completely. The teacher taught us how to make a baren out of two wooden doorknobs that were glued together.

One of the keys to having a consistent yoga practice is being surrounded with inspiration. I feel that having beautiful imagery in our environment reminds us of the things that gives us balance and strength to be our best self. I try to remember this when creating art. Click on any of the images to see more about the prints. For commission work based on yoga postures, go to the contact page to start a conversation.