Printmaking 'Accumulate and Disperse'

If Print is the marrying of two surface, resulting in a permanent or semi-permanent mark, monoprinting is the ultimate basic of this.  There are no controls for reproducibility and therefore no limitations, so long as a mark is made and not in too painterly a way.

My influences include Peter Liversidge (British 1973), who co-opts everyday materials into his work and who uses the postal system to give an unpredictability to the turn out of his final pieces, like the postcard works of On Kawara (Japanese 1933).  He has used embossing in printmaking mainly.

William Kentridge (South African 1955) who places prints upon prints is also important to me as this above example of his work illustrates, it often dissolves on close inspection but gives a dramatic scene with depth at a distance.  He also calls upon nature frequently as a theme which I am inclined to do.

Prints from nature...

The dispersal (around the garden) and accumulation (by me) of feathers.

Print made using metallic spray paint onto feathers, then pressing paper on top.

Monoprint.

Accumulation of two days of outdoor dirt and prints onto paper.

Monoprint.

Defrosting fish heads.  Fish blood monoprint onto paper.

By layering a stack of paper beneath the defrosting heads, a series of prints was created, each unique and following on from the piece of paper above it.

Accumulated mushrooms, dispersing their spores onto the paper as they degrade over a few days.  Monoprint.

The arrangement of the mushroom caps into a spiral arrangement is attempting to evoke a mechanical feel, like cogs within a mechanism or complex arrangement.

Small feature of a different mushroom monoprint.

Just as Nature is important in my printmaking work, the concept of communication of ideas or Memes (see Richard Dawkin's work) which are culturally shared and altered through basic pictorial or symbolic means.  The most obvious case of this is Religion, with some symbols being particular to one faith and others being shared by many, not only faiths but political and social regimes.

The idea of the ancient icon was produced for this monoprint, first by using wax-resist and watercolour and secondly by using the idea of a Saint appearing in an unexpected way, classically on a piece of toast.

The religious and iconographic ideas are easily incorporated into collograph work.  The collograph Angel and the Monument to a Soldier are examples.

Collograph plates

The Collograph Angel

 

It was my attempt at furthering the idea of the religious print which led me to produce a full body print, inspired by the famous but controversial Shroud of Turin.  I began by mixing acrylic paint with a body lotion to prevent it from drying out.  I then prepared a sheet with which to cover myself and applied to body paint and some make up to accentuate facial features.  The results were varied as the photos show but I believe this is worthy of repetition.

 The above is a detail from the face of the print.

 The above shows the reverse of the print on the left hand side and the frontal print on the right hand side.  The spine can be seen left-centre and the two differently coloured thighs can be picked out slightly diagonally on the right hand side of the print.

The painted nude from which the print was taken.

Drypoint Printing allows for the repetition of prints being produced from a single plate.  Some examples are as follows.  These can be overlapped, over-inked, re-printed and so on to produce monoprints.