Earthbound

Last night my monoprint show, Earthbound, opened at Gallery 24 here in Torrey. The opening was a lovely event, with plenty of people and a lot of interest in my work. I hung twenty 8"x10" monoprints (well, one was a monotype) that represent my main body of work this year. Photos of some of the prints and their presentation in the gallery can be found here.

My favorite print, left, was one of the last that I created, and it was purchased by one of my favorite people. Several other prints sold as well, which was a pleasant surprise. Even more satisfying was the curiosity that friends and acquaintances showed in the processes and methods used to create the art. I typed up a little explanatory page that hangs on the wall next to the work, describing the different techniques of drypoint, intaglio, collography, and chine collé. The prints are labelled accordingly.

All in all, I am thrilled with the results of a winter and spring of hard work. I feel comfortable with all of the techniques and materials involved in creating these works, and I am very pleased with the results. My next challenge, I think, is to work in both cold wax and monotypes/prints to see how the two very different processes can compliment and inform each other. But, first, Jerome and I are off on a long-anticipated vacation to Banff, Alberta, Canada!

monotype toolbox

It's hard to believe that nearly six months have passed since I wrote the last post, and yet much has happened in that time. A dear friend passed away in early February, and as successor trustee for her estate, much of my time since then has been taken up with legal and other matters that have drained both emotion and energy. A second workshop with Ron Pokrasso in January introduced both Jerome and me to SolarPlate and ImageOn printmaking. Then, late last month, I met my artist friend Phyllis at Timberwick once again, for a full week of instruction from Ron. Much of the material was a review for me, yet a second time through only added to my depth of understanding. More importantly, I now sense that I have a substantial toolbox of monotype techniques, and I am beginning to create new work that takes advantage of a wide variety of approaches.

My list of techniques echoes Ron's "layers and plates" approach, and includes: (1) layering multiple inked plates on a single print, (2) using ghosts of plates as springboards for new prints, (3) playing with the viscosity of multiple inks on a single plate, (4) integrating thin papers in chine collé, (5) creating and printing intaglio plates (SolarPlate and drypoint), (6) creating and printing collographic plates, and (7) veiling (partially covering prints with opaque white or tinted ink).

Gallery 24 here in Torrey is giving me a solo exhibition this coming July, so I have a deadline and purpose to my work. I hope to have about twenty presentable monoprints to show.

The image above is a monoprint with both collography and SolarPlate images, 8" x 10".