Printing in the Coastal Bend

Here are some shots from a printmaking workshop I taught at the Rockport Center for the Arts in Texas. I had a blast working with the community in the beautiful Coastal Bend.

Many workshop participants had never done printmaking before but they quickly picked up the techniques and made some amazing work. I taught additive/reductive monotype and then discussed ways to combine monotype with drypoint, collograph, and chine colle.

Monotype plate and print with chine colle

Success!

Monotype print with chine colle and plate

I love successful printmaking days

The print below was inspired by a blurry iphone pic I snapped awhile back, while rushing past an industrial complex off the highway. It is an image which I have seen many times before in my native Northwest Indiana ('the Region') as well as central Jersey and Pennsylvania. The places change, but the image keeps appearing in my work. 

 Untitled XIV (Bethlehem)

monotype, 17x24 in

Almost four hours I worked on the plate for this print, which is longer than I would normally spend on a monotype. I rolled out the ink, created one image, obliterated it, re-inked the plate, roughed in the new image, wiped off the plate tone in the negative space, then went back in with stiff brushes to draw the details. I wanted to achieve a balance between flat and three-dimensional forms while maintaining the essential mood of the image. 

Untitled XV (Bethlehem)

monotype, 17x24 in

Untitled XV (Bethlehem) - detail