$15.00 Approx. 4.25"x5.5"

XTINA LAMB - LONDON, ENGLAND
"Indelible Love"

how did you hear about gocco?
My friend Mark Pawson has used it to make some of his work for quite a few years. I'd always wanted to have a go on the machine as I share his love of lo-fi printing devices. Mark invited me to be part of his Print More Postcards project, where he invited 10 artists to print a gocco card. I loved it, but one go was not enough – I needed a print gocco of my own.
A Japanese friend recently told me that 'gocco' means something like 'pretend' – to suggest how a child would play at printing.

what do you like about gocco versus other mediums you work in?
I use computers a lot and this was initially my escape route back to making more tactile work. There's an old fashioned, vintage quality to the prints that I find really beautiful. It reminds me of the ink in children’s books from the mid-20th century. I also love the way the results confuse people who know a bit about printmaking. They can see it's kind of like screenprinting, or maybe even stone litho (the ink can look quite velvety), but that there's something odd going on in how the colours spread. It's unique, and it messes with people's heads!

I use the PG-11 machine as it registers so well, and the stamping kit – a weird beast with springy legs that lets you print on any flat surface. They are small and easy to store. The restrictions on artwork size and the way the process requires you to work with carbon-based mediums (pencil / photocopies / carbon pens / ink) are welcome limitations and allow me to work quickly. But I'm twisted or obtuse enough to enjoy the challenge of trying to produce fine prints with a gadget that was essentially designed as a practical toy.

do you have any gocco tips/tricks?
Yes, but that's what the Gocco group on Flickr is for!

what does love mean to you?
Something that I can't fake, force, forget, or live without

what contemporary artists are you inspired by?
It's hard to divide what you find yourself drawn to and what has actually influenced you. I love the work of Margaret Kilgallen, Jon Langford, Mark Beyer, Dan Clowes, Seth, Mark Ryden, Sara Fanelli, Rob Ramsden, Tom D., Sophie Calle, Susan Hiller... and 100s of other kinds of people whose work makes me want to get on and make more of my own.

I keep scrapbooks of illustration / design / shapes / colours / packaging that I like to get ideas from, and the 5 issues of Craphound magazine provide inspiration & reference again and again. Art of the last century is important to me too, if not more than contemporary work - Lucienne Day, Eric Ravilious, Edward Bawden, children’s illustrators like JP Miller, Jim Flora, and the Provensens, and all sorts of ephemeral printed things such as the card headers of dimestore toys, or luggage labels. A lot of contemporary artists that I like are looking back to the 1940s-60s with their influences.

tell the audience what movie, book, album, website, tv show, and magazine you love that most people haven't seen/read/heard?
‘Most people’ isn’t easy to guess as a US audience will be familiar with things that are barely known here, and vice versa.
Recently I've been watching a lot of Michael Powell & Emeric Pressberger films and my current favourite is Contraband, closely followed by Gone To Earth. Their films usually contain witty quickfire conversation, intrigue, English eccentrics, beautiful cinematography and interesting commentary on class. Don't let the wartime settings put you off. Guy Maddin's strange, lovely movies such as Careful, and George Kuchar's mad melodramas (The Devil's Cleavage) also make me very happy.
Books: A Fête Worse Than Death by Iain Aitch (a very funny study of the English at leisure in the summertime) and Lessons in Taxidermy - Bee Lavender's amazing and moving true-life stories.
Music: Shari Elf - I'm Forcing Goodness Upon You. Her songs are so funny, simple and sweet.
Radio: I mine the WFMU archives often. And now they do podcasts.... ahhhhh (sigh of contentment).
This American Life is fantastic for people stories & provoking thoughts.
In the UK, Resonance FM is good and very varied. I like the Bike show.

favorite place in your town?
Absolutely no way I can choose just one - I love London with a burning passion. Waterloo Bridge, White Hart Lane, Toll Gate Cafe, Eltham Palace, Hampstead Heath, The New Piccadilly, the South Bank Centre, The Horse Hospital, Pennybank Chambers, Postman’s Park, Golden Lane Estate...

favorite place in the world?
No idea. To be that special it would probably have to be about something that happened there as well. In which case I have to say the corner of Middleton Grove at Camden Road - a very ordinary street corner in North London.(Now we're dying to know! -ed.)

any advice you can pass onto aspiring artists/designers?
Do it for yourself, because you have to, because you HAVE TO and because if you don't you will be miserable. Any other reason doesn't work. It's incredibly difficult to motivate and sustain yourself in creative work and it's only worth the trouble if it's an essential part of you. Finding part time work and a studio share is the ideal way to get a balance between making money and staying sane. You get a routine and time that everyone knows is your own and you can meet other people in similar situations who understand and give you support. Don't try to do work at home unless you have a separate studio and are extremely disciplined - to the point where you can resist daytime tv / the internet / sleeping in / any other temptation. It really isn't easy, but it can be pure satisfaction.