Monotypes, 2022

Just before Covid, I began on a series of etchings. I started with fragments of images from my street photographs; working in part with textured, cloth-like plates; overlaying additional plates, textured and otherwise; and collaging in other elements, and as I worked, I understood the process as a coming-together of several of my ongoing formal concerns: texture, fragmenting, geometric forms, and collage and overlay.

The magic of this process lies in the immediacy with which I can see connections among the materials: the echoes between printing on found fabric or recycled paper, for instance, and/or hand printing with textured objects and earlier relief carving. Some of the monotypes omit images altogether, allowing the blanket-like surfaces to speak for themselves. Color is elevated, though limited to grays, silver, reds and blues, while transparency and opacity remain strong.

Concurrently, I have been revisiting and rebuilding larger, older works, earlier examples of working with repeated printed images, fragments, gestures, and partial viewing (e.g. Milkquilt, 2004). The physicality and directness of monotype helps expedite the process of making visible what I see.