Print, 'Connected Loneliness', wood engraving by Leonie Bradley, 2017.

Scene of a man at a computer surrounded by darkness.

Leonie Bradley is a contemporary printmaker who works in a variety of media, including wood engraving which she began using when she was 10. She has exhibited widely and her work features in the Ashmolean Museum and the Manchester Metropolitan University collection. In 2015, she was elected a member of the Society of Wood Engravers. Her mother is the eminent living wood engraver, Hilary Paynter.

In Connected Loneliness, Bradley’s sparse use of line reinforces meaning. The crude wood engraving tool of the scorper is used to create the sharp light and dark contrasts of the computer screen. The fine multiple line tool is used for the more delicate lines of the ghostly, disembodied figure. Minimal cutting into the block allows minimal light into the resulting impression. The darkness is thus hardly relieved accentuating the sense of loneliness and the failure of social media to create meaningful connection.

E.693-2017