Collograph Prints
In 2021 I began exploring collograph printing and how it might fit into my practice. The idea of creating a plate that had a bit of a shelf life when it came to how many times you could viably print it seemed appealing to me, as did the idea of making variable editions — prints that were different from each other but also the same in some ways.
This exploration has turned out to fit perfectly into my practice of expressing the local landscape in all of its moods. Printing allows me to take the same plate — the same landscape — and show it literally in a different light. By wiping the plate differently on each printing, I can produce a differently lit landscape. It is the same place, but viewed very differently.
In this way, a small variable edition that encompasses a period of time is itself the work rather than single prints.
For plate-making I experiment with different materials, but discarded cereal boxes are currently my favorite way as I learn the many ways to make plates.
"Squak Mountain: Progression 2" -- a series of prints in which each one was wiped differently than the previous print in order to produce prints that would show the light differently each time.
"Squak Mountain: A Progression"
"Tiger Mountain: A Day" -- this is a two-plate collograph in which the background trees are on one plate and inked and printed separately from the foreground trees on another plate. In this way I was able to experiment with ghost printing for different lighting effects.
A run of seven prints for "Tiger Mountain: A Day". In the end, three prints were chosen to be a variable edition that showed the progress of light over a day.
A plate in the making. Like my paintings, each of the landscapes in my plates are invented, but come directly from my time spent in the local forest trails of the Cascade foothills.
The Light Through The Only Window
Three-plate collagraph print, 7” x 9” image on 9” x 12” watercolor paper
In this three-plate series I used two separate plates, one inked with blue and one inked with red oxide. In each of these my aim was to create the feeling of shifting light over time, as if seeing the landscape change out of a window as you watch.
Several plates were made. Some were discarded, some were reserved as single variable editions, and these three were chosen to be a triptych called The Light Through The Only Window.
Monotype Prints
7” x 9” ink monotypes on 9” x 12” watercolor paper
This series of ink reduction monotypes is an exploration in using printmaking as another view into the abstracted landscapes I paint. I love exploring the striking value composition of single-color ink monotypes.