The Optimistic Edge: Dave Lefner and His Reduction Linocuts

Artist Dave Lefner can happily spend hours at a time carving away small sections of linoleum with the edge of a metal gouge to create linocuts of motor lodge and liquor store signs, cars, Tootsie Pops or other icons of mid-century American life. The Sky Ranch, Stardust and Half Moon Motel, Continentals and Thunderbirds — his vibrantly colored and finely detailed signs, cars and buildings are iconic representations of the great energy and optimism associated with the nation's golden age, when Americans not only dreamed of travel by car but journeys into space, to the moon and the stars. After 20 years of working as a printmaker, Lefner now has a body of work that truly captures this moment in American cultural history and reflects not only the optimism of the time but also his own optimism as an artist.