I haven’t posted in a couple months because though I’ve been busy in the studio I didn’t have much that was ready to show you. But finally, here we are.

I told you back in May that I’ve been working with a gel press, learning how to do monoprints. One of the main reasons I’m exploring this direction is that I’ve always had it in mind to work with more of the gesture sketches I did years ago of the derelict homestead cabins visible here in my desert community. My sense was that monoprints would give me some of the advantages of pastel painting but without the fragility of that medium. And so it is, although the extreme chromatic dynamism of the pastels remains theirs alone. But the pigment on these monoprints is stable; it won’t rub off or smear. It retains the quality of the gesture without the hazard.

This is the first time I’ve scanned any of this series and I think the result looks a little fuzzy, though in real life it doesn’t read that way. I do esteem soft/lost edges and rough lines, so that is part of the aesthetic. So maybe these won’t register so great digitally. But I’m very happy with what I’m getting In Real Life, which is my main aim these days. I hope you’ll get to see them in person someday! That said, this particular pull was not perfect and the print is a little ragged around the edges. I’m not pro at this technique and I don’t expect I ever will be. I’m not sure the humble gel press supports technical print perfection. But that’s okay with me; “rustic” is what these homesteads are all about, and I prefer that the prints convey that.

I’ll write more about the homestead cabins and my past work with the subject another time. For now I’ll just refer you to this page on my website and especially to this specific body of work from 2016, which came from the same cache of gesture sketches.

I’ll also be posting more in the future about…

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