Dave Lefner’s art is painstaking and meticulous, sometimes even perhaps downright slow and old fashioned to some. But perhaps what the Los Angeles native lacks in speed, he certainly makes up for in the intention of each piece, from the subjects he picks to the composition of the work itself.

Lefner’s medium, the science of reduction linocut, is the process of slowly cutting away the layers of a slab of linoleum, so that paint can be applied and transferred in layers to a piece of paper. There are handful of folks that still practice this application and even fewer who have in recent years mastered it.

In the clip The [ahr-tuh-zen] Project, filmmaker Ric Serena takes a detailed look at the artist’s methodology and body of work.

From Serena himself:

“Dave chooses the rarely used medium of reduction linocuts to express his love for the City of Angels as well as preserve the history of it’s ever changing urban landscape. Whether it’s found in the extreme shadows cast from a broken neon sign at midday or in the intricate web of power lines crisscrossed overhead, Los Angeles provides him the perfect inspiration for his detailed linoleum block prints.”

Nicholas M.H. | RootSpeak Staff

Nicholas M.H. is one of the founders of both RootSpeak and the site's parent publisher, Truth&Rights Collective. Between giving his fellow editors a hard time, he fills the remaining hours of each day with his own writing and excursions into the worlds of media cooperatives and creative consulting for various inspired upstarts.

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