Last week, I spent time at the Fine Arts Work Center as part of the Returning Artist Residency program.  I have often thought of printmaking as a great way to explore new ideas for painting because the investment of time and materials seemed so different.  My ideas about that are shifting.  As much as I enjoy the freedom to explore, I can’t hep but think that all the work I am doing is part of the process.  The printmaking supports the painting, and vice versa.  I think I have Master Printmaker Vicky Tomayko to thank for that.  Truly an inspirational  artist on all levels.

My hope is that this new imagery will advance my exploration of black surface on the canvas.  As I talked about earlier in the year, after seeing wonderful shows of Mark Rothko at Pace Gallery, and Kerry James Marshall at The Met Breuer, it’s all about surface.  Something completely lost in digital format.  Although it would appear that works on paper don’t seem to suffer the same way a painting does,  I suspect that has something to do with the inks I feel compelled to use.

A recent challenge for me was how to recreate the feeling of a trace monotype in paint.  Not to mimic, but finding the nuance of the print is a better choice of words.  Finding the artist hand, verses the brush.  I continue to work with that idea, but I have again found something to explore in printmaking.  The idea of building surface texture in a print.