Saturday, April 5, 2008

All you ever draw are horses!



Green Bull, Monotype, 6 x 6 inches

Bull.

Hooooooooooie. I slay myself! Oh, man.....wish I had that idea in time for April Fools day!

See what happens when you spend your days alone with a couple of dogs. Dogs without senses of humor. Or maybe they have highly developed senses of humor, and they don't appreciate mine. Or my lack of. Imagine poor Darby, coming home to a company starved husband. Who thinks he's funny.



Red and Orange, monotype, 6 x 8 inches

I should probably stick with making pictures. So, monotypes. The painterly arm of printmaking. With most types of printmaking the goal is to do an edition of prints that look nearly identical. The only variation between individual prints is that caused by the hand of the artist in inking and wiping the plate. The image itself is either in or on the plate, stone or board. I'll post a couple of stone lithographs next time.


White Bull, Monotype, 6 x 8 inches

Monotypes are different. A monotype is done on a blank plate. The image is created with ink - rolled, brushed, mushed, smudged- applied to the plate in any way that seems appropriate at the moment. A damp sheet of paper - I like Rives BFK- is put over the plate on the bed of the press, and then it is cranked through the etching press. When the print is pulled from the plate, you can say, Cool, just what I was thinking, or Mmmmmmm, not quite there yet. If the former, it becomes the first in a variable edition. If it's the latter, you apply some more ink to modify the first image, lay the print down face up on the press bed, and carefully drop the plate back down into the embossment, (Darby and I are actually arguing about whether that's a word), and run it through again. And this can continue, inking, reprinting, until you are happy. And then you use the ink residue to start the back and forth conversation with the next print. No two the same. Maybe similar, but not the same.

Rusting Bull, Monotype, 6 x 8 inches

A visual, evolving conversation. Kinda like the way I paint.

1 comment:

Magic said...

Why, That's no Horse.......