Dancing Imps

IMAGE OF THE WEEK

This monoprint is one of my earliest works of art that I still have – stashed in an old portfolio somewhere in my basement.  It measures about 9″ wide.  I created it almost forty years ago!  I was around twenty years old at the time, and had just started studying printmaking at the Art Students’ League of NY.  This simple monoprint, however, would have been done at home, as I was able to run it through the little wrought-iron table-top press that I clamped to the kitchen table.

Sometimes images are printed to create multiples.  In fine art printmaking, the press is used to create visual effects – using pressure. A monoprint is, as the name suggests, a one-of-a-kind original print. Essentially, it’s a printed painting.  Thus the painting has the appearance of a linoleum block print, but the printing plate isn’t carved.  The ink is simply applied to the plate (either metal or linoleum) with a brush. Then printmaking paper is placed on top, and paper and plate are passed between two heavy rollers.  The ink is pressed into the paper, and this is the result. In this case, the black paper shows through like thick outlines.

What was I thinking when I created these two funny figures?  I have no idea.  But I was young and in love, living with my future husband in a top-floor apartment of an old farmhouse near the Hudson River.  Evidently we were feeling quite carefree!  Unlike many (or most) women who grew up in the Baby Boomer generation, I did not feel oppressed.  I did not feel disadvantaged for being a woman, and nobody told me I couldn’t reach for the stars and fulfill my potential as I saw it.  I felt quite liberated – and still do.

I’d like to start creating some new original prints.  A monoprint would be ever so relaxing after the tightly polished work I do as an illustrator.  In my spare time . . .

 

 

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