A woodcut, does not present much process, its a very simple and direct approach to making a print.  A block of wood, carved with simple tools, rolled with ink and offset onto paper.  Floaters is an old etched image I reworked and designed for the woodblock carving.   I always liked the image, but it never worked as an etching, so I pushed it into a relief design.  Using the proportions of the pupil to iris to eyeball, I designed the elusive “floating” characters that appear to often cover the surface of your eye.

An etching can contain many varied processes developed one after another on the copper plate, building a final image.  My two displayed etchings, The Hand of Glory and Cheeky Monkey take advantage of basic etching techniques of line and aquatint. I did vary each to yield different visual results.  After working exclusively on zinc plates for decades, these two prints represent the first few works on copper using ferric chloride as my mordant.  The change in materials has affected the work, and I’m quite excited by the results.  I built an aquatint box and for the first time am using rosin as my aquatint ground.  I enjoy using this traditional rosin ground for the fine grain along side the modern use of grainy, spray paint aquatint. 

My imagery is playful, building from a cast of characters I’ve developed over the years and continue to develop influenced by reading (currently The Divine Comedy) and drawing from imagination while designing them into narrative, surreal landscapes.  The final step in my process is to paint the prints with washes of watercolor.

The dive, just as wood lithography, has its limits. The observed environment in a dive is fleeting; time, vision and mobility are competing factors. The inked wood block. a clearly printed image, re-inked and printed again, eventually develops tones, allowing shadow areas to become muddied and obscured. Infused with ambiguity, altered scale, and organic material, the works echo one’s ever-changing perception in the transition from focused to unrecognizable.

Inspiration for Global Aberrations Series:  The print exhibited here titled “Global Aberrations #3, Feel the Heat” is from a series of 12 monoprints. This series started out as a response to last summer’s global record-breaking temperatures and ongoing global climate extremes. Utilizing intense color and the repetition of symbolic organic forms (the sphere as earth/sun or moon, foliage shadows, leaf shapes, seaweed texture, ice cracks and topographical linear patterns) my intention is to show reverence for our natural world as well as point out abnormal climate activity, as indicated by some of the titles such as, Feel the Heat, Rising Tides, Cool Heat and Overgrowth. Even though the work may appear pleasing and everything seems like it comes together in a balanced way, underlying these images lies a difficult truth. Hopefully this work can inspire us to think about our current condition of the planet and to collectively find ways towards creating a better, healthier earth.

The Earth Laughs in Flowers; 1,2,3

Medium for “The Earth Laughs in Flowers” Series:  In this triptych I am utilizing a technique called pressure printing along with printing handcut stencils and foliage from my garden. The pressure printing technique is similar to doing a crayon rubbing and reveals the nuanced textures and shapes of the chosen real foliage. In addition to this process, I inked and printed plastic stencils in the shapes of flattened orchids and other flowers. In monoprinting only about 70% of the ink is printed on the first print. I use the leftover ink from the first print, added to new ink layers to make variations on the theme as long as the ink remains wet and pliable. These 3 prints all relate to one another revealing a different atmosphere using this continuing process of printing.

Inspiration for the Earth Laughs in Flowers Series:  The title “ The Earth Laughs in Flowers” comes from a line in a poem titled “Hamatreya” by Ralph Waldo Emerson published in 1847 and roughly translates to “Hail, Mother Earth”. This poem deals with the complex relationship between humans and nature and how humans have a need to conquer nature and claim it for their own and how futile this notion is. As we have seen through history and as is evidenced by our current climate crisis, this practice can and will backfire. For me this is why mother nature is “laughing in flowers”! Nature can’t be tamed or taken over or taken for granted, she just keeps on adapting and giving despite what we do to her. These series of monoprints (currently there are about 15 of them) are my attempt to create reverence for our planet as we navigate the complexities of how to sustain a healthier natural environment. It is my hope that we adopt the attitude of working with mother nature not against her.

Showing Off, Ghost

Medium for “Showing Off, Ghost”:  This print is a monotype, made from painting or rolling ink on a non-porous surface such as in this case, clear acrylic plastic.  Monotypes differ from monoprints in that they lack a fixed (etched, cut or scratched) matrix from which ink is applied and then printed. Both types of prints are considered one-of-a-kind images that can never be identically duplicated. Yet in a monoprint, the matrix has some permanent information etched, cut or scratched into the surface, and the artist chooses to make a unique variant of the fixed image on the plate. While on the other hand, a monotype is made on a matrix that is devoid of any permanent information. The image can be painted a second time but each subsequent print will be different. This type of printing is not concerned with making editions or a set of identical prints; each image is unique.

In addition, the artist can utilize the leftover ink on the plate from the first print to make a second print called a cognate or “ghost” without washing off the plate. This kind of 2^nd print is generally lighter in tonality and is varied according to how the artist applies the ink for the second print. In both monoprints and monotypes the artist has the freedom to manipulate the ink in inventive ways making it exciting for those that wish to experiment and get different results each time.

Inspiration for Showing Off, Ghost:  This print comes from a series of painted monotypes responding to research I did regarding bird behaviors. I was struck with the realization that some bird behaviors are very similar to human interpersonal relationships. This bird configuration is intended to mimic confidence by using an upright stature of the bird that may be trying to impress a mate or “show off”. In the title, the word “Ghost” refers to the way this image was made. It utilizes leftover ink from a previous monotype and is lighter in tonality. A few passes with the brayer over top of the plate before printing again, also called a roll-over, reveals a ghost-like atmosphere.

Emergence #2

Medium for “Emergence #2”:  This print is a combination of a relief print, a monoprint from an etched plastic plate and handcut stencils and pulp painting which created the paper it is printed on. First the colored pulp was manipulated into an image and dried as a sheet of paper.  Then the monoprint was printed on top of the pulp painted paper to reveal the rest of the image of forms from nature.

Inspiration for Emergence #2:  Nature’s intricate patterns were the inspiration for this image. I used such items as the hexagonal shapes of the cells of a hornet’s nest, close-up views of mayfly wings and the linear pattern of a wind weather map to form an image that seems to emerge from the surface. This is intended to be a celebration of our natural world and reveal the joy and fascination we can have if we closely observe and revere nature.