Jar II
2025. Gel press acrylic monoprint on paper. 8 x 10 in.

I got the gel press back out this winter, and I made a series of monoprints with this motif.

Here’s an early, very stripped-down version:

You can see they still have that very rustic look that kinda goes with gel-printing. I have improved my technique – a lot, actually – but it’s just not a medium of perfection. At least, not for me. And I’m cool with that.

This one maybe goes a little too far, lol:

I did not get a very “clean pull”, as they say, on this one, with too much of the cerulean paint sticking to the plate and leaving ragged edges on the print. But I like it. The sense of disintegration works with this subject. I decided to keep it the way it is.

The attraction in gel printing is the adventure. It’s hard to control the result. Which is very appealing to me. If it ain’t an adventure, I’m not there.

I have a few more with this motif, which I’ll post another time. This subject of the simple basic vessel has an enduring attraction for me. I’ve posted before a series of another kind of jar – the Mexican olla – that I painted for my sister, after her passing. The classical jar subject holds so much: a signifier of abundance, of generosity, of nourishment, of containing, but also of emptiness. The curving shapes recall the body, and the clay of which we are all made.

Feeling pulled toward the ancient qualities these days. The eternal. No interest in the novel at all. The privilege and duty of old age.

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