OUR MISSION Monoprint-Monotype.com understands the importance of providing a venue for this unique form of art. Our matrix is as open as the imaginations of the artists it supports. To that end we will explore the work of emerging, established and surprising artists from around the world. They will be presented here and in on our website Monoprint-Monotype.com.
Included Artists: Justin Sanz Elana Goren Racheal Burgess David Fox Alexi Brock Steven Walker MM&S Magazine is a submission-based, quarterly digital and on-demand print publication.
Cover artwork “D+G Sailing” by Justin Sanz
Reproduction in whole or part is prohibited without permission of the publisher. All artwork has been reproduced with the kind permission of the artists. ©2017 Donald S. Kolberg
The easiest way to understand the difference between a Monoprint and a Monotype is to understand the underlying block or matrix. Monoprint When beginning a Monoprint, permanent marks are produced on the surface. This creates a common feature on successive works. But there would be an endless variation of images according to the application of medium, (paint, ink, chalk), and whether additional collage elements are added. Monotype A Monotype on the other hand is created on a smooth surface. Similar to monoprinting, a variety of mediums and elements can be incorporated on the surface. But there are no permanent features that transfer to successive works. Once the image is transferred, except for the occasional ghost print from excess medium, the surface is freed from the created work of art and the chosen surface now holds the art work. Strappo A Strappo is a dry image transfer technique that has been recognized as a specific printmaking monotype procedure by the Print library at New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, and a sample Strappo is in the print library collection. A Strappo is a combination of painting and printing. It is developed as a reverse painting, resulting in a dry acrylic transfer created on a smooth surface such as glass. It is then transferred to a paper support. If you are a Monoprint or Monotype artist, we are interested in what you have to say and what you have to show. If you are interested contact us for more information at; Don@monoprint-monotype.com
From the Editor More than a year ago when I was looking at calls for print artists I was struck by the constant call for works in editions. But my work in monotypes and monoprints had no repetition. It was then that I thought an e zine dedicated to this mark making would give artists a venue for exhibiting their work. I decided that there would be no burden of cost to enter their work and no requirement to buy anything. What I would do is show their work on line at my website Monoprint-Monotype.com and partner with a print on demand service so if an artist wanted a hard copy they could get an issue. Suddenly I find myself beginning the second year of publishing MM&S (Monoprint, Monotype and Strappo), an E Zine with the growing support of an international group of artists. Since the 1640s when Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione spread ink on unincised metal plates through the work of Rembrandt, Degas, Picasso, Sam Francis, Motherwell, Diebenkorn and countless others, this unique art continues. In the coming year we hope to expand the e zine to include not only interviews but also articles about artist and the different processes used by artists to create these wonderful works. There is no plan to charge artist for inclusion. And while we rely on financial contributions from our readers, hopefully we will attract advertisers that are associated with the art of monoprints and monotypes. Thank you for your support and please let other artist know that we always have pages waiting for their work. Donald Kolberg Editor in Chief If you would like information about advertising your products in our E Zine please contact us at Don@Monoprint-Monotype.com
If you would like to contribute to the operation of this E Zine, please click on the Pay Pal Donate Button at: http://monoprint-monotype.com/mms-e-zines
Rachael Burgess
Rachael Burgess grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts, graduated with a degree in Comparative Literature from Yale University in 2004, and received an M.F.A. in Illustration as Visual Essay from the School of Visual Arts in 2007. She has exhibited at the International Print Center of New York (NY), the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art at Snug Harbor (NY), the Monmouth Museum (NJ), the Pyramida Center for Contemporary Art (Israel) and the Seoul Museum of Art (Korea). She has had solo exhibitions in New York and Maine, and will have a solo exhibition at the University of Connecticut in 2017. Her work has featured in Drawing Magazine, CMYK Magazine, 3x3 Magazine and the Society of Illustrators Annual. She’s received artist residencies at Zea Mays Printmaking and at the Schoodic Institute in Acadia National Park, and has created commissioned pieces for Brooklyn CSA + D and CityMD.
Blades of Grass
I’ve always been interested in storytelling. After studying literature and illustration, I began to make artwork about memory – about the stories we tell about ourselves. I’m fascinated by the way we use storytelling tools like editing, repetition and abstraction to turn our experiences into memories.
The Lake
Home
The Sentinel
Koi Pond
Mist Through my landscapes I explore this process visually, first by sketching on location, then by editing my images into simple, eloquent forms. Afterwards, I make monotypes based on my sketches. The final images are like stories or memories – archetypal, rather than photo-realistic.
Route 186
My most recent landscapes span multiple sheets of paper. This format stems from my background in illustration/sequential art; I like to think of my images as pages from a book. I work in monotype because it mirrors my interest in memory, as the initial “painting� on the plate is lost but a unique work on paper is created.
Sailboat Pond, Central Park
Winter, Route 1
Tree Tops
Additional information and images can be found at;
rachburgess@gmail.com www.rachel-burgess.com Monoprint-Monotype.com
The Mirror
Featured Interview Justin Sanz
MM&S: Besides your position as the Workshop Manager at the EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop in NYC you have been involved with printmaking workshops at MOMA and a variety of other programs. Can you bring us up to date on all this excitement? Justin: Sure! Yes, It has all been very exciting. The workshops at the MoMA, Studio Museum of Harlem, and Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture have been the most recent classes I have conducted as Workshop Manager of EFA RBPMW.
At MoMA, with the help of print shop artists and MoMA educators, we’ve conducted a series of 16 Monotype workshops, in conjunction with the “Degas: A Strange New Beauty” exhibition. In each class, 18-20 museum goers had the opportunity to learn the monotype process, similar to the way Degas made his, but with non-toxic materials and water soluble inks. The classes were about an hour and a half, and participants were able to make up to 3 monotypes. We used a small, mobile Conrad etching press that we brought over from RBPMW.
Forced Feeding
Justin: Using the MoMA workshops as a model, I’ve been able to provide similar iterations of these classes to new students. Most recently I’ve taught monotype to the Schomburg Center Teen Curators as well as pronto plate lithography to 40 participants as part of the “Circa 1970” exhibition at the Studio Museum. Each workshop has been a great learning experience for myself and all of the parties involved. It’s been really amazing to see how much can be accomplished in a quick, hands on workshop. It’s also been great exposure for RBPMW and the prints that have come from participants have really been impressive.
Forward March
Storming the Beach MM&S: Now that there are so many mediums used to print and a variety of mechanics to complete them, tell us about your favorite way to print. Justin: I really love all printmaking mediums, but my favorite is woodcut. Ever since I studied with Antonio Frasconi at SUNY Purchase in 2003, I have loved creating woodblocks and prints utilizing the wood grain. Most recently I have been carving large, 4ft x 8ft plywood blocks and using the grain as inspiration. I start with drawing on a toned block to enhance or downplay sections of woodgrain and achieve dimension, while maintaining the grain’s integrity. I then utilize hand gauges and a die grinder to carve the blocks. Once finished, the blocks are printed with lithographic inks through a press or with a steamroller. I find the whole process of carving and printing peaceful and meditative; it is one of the mediums I crave the most.
MM&S: Tell us about your process and thoughts on monoprints and monotypes. Justin: My monotype process mostly begins with the idea first, and then gathering references or subjects to work from. I paint on plexiglass and prop it up vertically so the light can come through the back; this gives me a more accurate translation to what the print will look like. Most of my monotypes use lithographic ink diluted with paint thinner to achieve tones and litho varnish to ensure the ink doesn’t dry on the plate. Each monotype is completed in roughly a 5 - 9 hour session.
Identity Crisis I think monotypes are an under-appreciated medium, and wrongfully viewed as less than a painting or watercolor. However, recently, the medium has been getting more attention in museum shows like the Degas at MoMa, which is fantastic.
MM&S: How has your art grown and what influences helped to move your art to this point in your career? Justin: My biggest influences have been working as an assistant to Malcolm Morley and alongside all the artists and printers at RBPMW. Both have given me an expansive perception of the art world and reasons to create art.
For a Few Dollars More
Malcolm has been a great inspiration, he has truly made his mark on art history and painting on his own terms. He has taught me so much about what it means to be an artist and to never compromise my ideas for anything or anyone. Malcolm and his studio manager Peter Krashes taught me the most valuable lesson, that I can create anything I want with patience and perseverance. At EFA RBPMW the generosity of shared knowledge and affordable studio space, inspired by Robert Blackburn’s vision, has allowed me to really hone my skills as a printmaker. Also, because of the work exchange program, I have had a studio to work in ever since my first year out of college.
MM&S: As the workshop manager, what kinds of problems do you see emerging printmakers having to deal with in the studio? Justin: The hardest thing for emerging printmakers is balancing making a living and finding the time to create art in New York City. With the prices for everything continually rising as they have been, its becoming harder and harder to find that balance. You either have to work full time and not have enough time for your work, or have time to make artwork and worry about having enough money to get by. It is for this reason, places like EFA RBPMW are extremely important; providing creative facilities and supplies for little to no cost.
US KAPUT
Hambo 4
MM&S: What are you working on for you in your studio right now? Justin: I’ve just finished a large painting that I worked on for 3 years on and off, so now the large woodblocks have become my focus again. For the past 2 years I’ve helped run the steamroller printing at the Braddock Park Arts Festival in New Jersey run by Guttenberg Arts. So far, I’ve carved two 4 ft x 8ft woodblocks and printed them with the steam roller in the park. At the moment I’m playing with sewing together the prints for the blocks to make even bigger prints and tapestries. Now that I have hung them all together, I’m realizing that I need to carve more blocks.
MM&S: Wearing so many hats in the print studio gives you the opportunity to work with print artist of many calibers. Given this, where do you see the print field going in the next 5 to 10 years? Justin: I know that printmakers will continue to adapt new technologies to create prints with. Printers are only beginning to explore laser cutters and digital routers to create prints and plates, so I’m sure we will see more of that. Now with 3D printers, those technically make prints too, but I have yet to see anyone create a matrix from a 3D printer. It will be interesting to see if printmakers will adapt this technology to make artwork.
Lord & Taylor Suit Ad
Additional information and images can be found at; justin@efanyc.org justinsanz.com Monoprint-Monotype.com
Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop 323 W 39th St. 2nd Floor NYC, NY 10018
Elana Goren
Elana Goren is a printmaker, teacher, illustrator and graphic designer who has taught graphic design at SUNY New Paltz as well as painting and printmaking at the Westchester Center for the Arts. She has taught monotype and etching with other printmaking methods at the Garrison Art Center and has given etching presentations at the School of Visual Arts. She has worked as an art director for different companies and institutions including the Denver Art Museum and Scholastic, Inc. and has more recently worked through her own freelance company, Spider Ink Studio. Elana holds a BFA in Graphic Design from the School of Visual Arts and an MFA in Printmaking from SUNY New Paltz.
Elana’s work has been seen in both domestic and international museums and galleries. She is on the board of directors for the New York Society of Etchers and her work is represented in public and private collections including the permanent collection of the National Museum for Animals & Society. She has received professional awards and her work has been published in various publications. Currently, Elana is a featured artist in Volume 1, Edition 4 of Carrier Pigeon Magazine.
Sweet Land of Liberty The goal of my work is to provide an opening for the viewer, a provocation to think more deeply about a topic which is most often trivialized. The work strives to evoke an emotional reaction through visual “stories” depicted from animal subjects’ sentient point-of-view. This is to provide a visual narrative that compels the viewer to look beyond the obvious and delve into the reality of each subject’s situation. The intent is to depict the unique being instead of the stereotyped version of what has commonly been promoted so that the innate character of the individual is visually tangible. What is relayed, what is visible is always more than what is apparent at first glance.
Last One
Taken
For the Rodeo
Nowhere to Hide Inspiration comes from many sources, philosophical, artistic, and most importantly, the animal subjects themselves. Philosophers such as Jeremy Bentham and Peter Singer questioned the accepted status quo that humans should have unfettered license to torture, abuse and destroy non-human lives as they see fit.
No Protection
The message and the story of the darker side to human nature is represented brilliantly by Francisco de Goya, whose etchings have inspired me since I was a teenager. But, I am mostly motivated by the misery of the animals I see all around us; from the calf desperately licking the air through the grates of an overcrowded cattle truck that’s speeding down the highway on a hot day to the video of a screaming monkey as probes are being drilled into its head. These horrors, these injustices must be commented on and dealt with if we are to evolve and improve our society, move away from barbarism towards a civilized coexistence with fellow animals. With my awareness of the conditions in which non-humans exist in the human world, I am determined to shed light on what is happening through the visual language of my artwork.
Insight
BP’s Legacy
Haunted
Additional information and images can be found at; Egorenstudio@gmail.com Elanagoren.com Monoprint-Monotype.com
And Then There Were None
David Fox
David Fox was born in London and has lived in New York most of his adult life. He is a multi-disciplinary artist embracing the visual arts, playwriting, poetry and fiction as well as a songwriter and performer in New York. He studied Painting in London at St. Martin’s School of Art and at MICA, Baltimore under Grace Hartigan where he won the Graduate Painting Fellowship and has continued to practice his art exhibiting both nationally and internationally. His literary credits include short plays produced and performed at HVCCA, NY and on Off Off Broadway, poetry published by Corvinus Presse, Berlin, Germany and a book of poems and songs accompanied by a new CD to be published in 2017 by Moloko Records, Germany.
I have been making monotypes since I began my life as an artist. Always having a great interest in the graphic power of Black and White I was immediately attracted to the medium of monotype. I had already experimented with etching and woodcuts but monotypes provided me with a vehicle to be much freer in the use of line and mark making. Although I studied painting I am a draughtsman first and foremost. Drawing informs all that I do visually. Monotypes for me provide the perfect platform for my style of work. In fact I would say my style has really been informed and influenced by monotypes.
Demolition London
Macbeth
I use both dark and light field methods and frequently a little of both on the same plate. I work mostly in black and white but have made many color monotypes too. I return to monotypes again and again mostly as a work of art in their own right. But recently I have used them as supports for painting, working directly on the print in oil or watercolor or gouache.
Monument 6
Monument 1
Hamlet
Punk
BEAST
For a long time dark field monotypes were my preferred method. By beginning with a blackened plate it is like being in a very dark room and having to feel your way around. You bump into something and it lights up. That is an interesting mark or texture! Then you proceed each mark lights up the next. It’s a journey and you have no idea where you are or where you’ll end up.
Angel 11
Ghost of Banquo
Chorus
Light field has its advantages too. One can use line in a more direct and obvious way because you can see where it is going. I like both ways and as stated before I often make some areas dark and wipe out from them alongside light areas which are then treated in different ways.
Additional information at: dfox@pipeline.com www.facebook.com/david.fox.56027 www.davidfoxstudio.com Monoprint-Monotype.com
Self, Studio Floor
Steven Walker
Steven E. Walker was born in Brooklyn in 1955, the only year the Dodgers won the World Series. He was raised in West Islip, Long Island, from 1958. His childhood was marked by black and white TV, Sunday School, baseball (Yankee fan), state parks, the beach, and driving trips in the tristate region. He became interested in art after visiting several New York museums at age 18 and took several studio art classes at Wagner College. Working sporadically through his twenties, he began studying more seriously at The Art Students League of New York in 1983. Here he studied figure drawing for several years, then painting, before taking up etching in 1994. Since then he has also worked in lithography, relief, and monotype.
Subsequently he worked as a proofreader, freelance reporter for local news in Staten Island, and graphic artist, making charts and graphs for business presentations. He worked for ten years as mat cutter at The Old Print Shop in Manhattan, which carries his prints; and now works as a designer in publishing. Since 1991 he has exhibited his work in numerous exhibitions as well as outdoor art festivals.
Algiers II
Back In My Office
Twenty-Six
Radioactive Five Spot
I started making etchings in 1994, studying with Michael Pellettieri at The Art Students League of New York. Since that time I have also done lithographs, reliefs, monotypes and monoprints. The subject matter in my prints is often imagery from my paintings, though at times I make drawings specifically intended for printmaking. The main body of my work is urban realism, influenced by Hopper, as well as Whistler, Rembrandt, and the imagery of numerous 20th-century American printmakers whose work I was privileged to handle while working as mat-cutter at The Old Print Shop in New York. My first forays into monotype were in 1996, when I experimented with abstractions done with Luma and watercolor on plexiglass. In 2006-07 I spent a year making oilbased monotypes drawing upon imagery from my long-time interest in film noir. While watching VHS tapes of films such as Double Indemnity, The Third Man, The Big Sleep, and Algiers, as well as Hitchcock and others, I would look for interesting abstract compositions within the passing scenes. I’d pause the remote control and zero in on exactly my favorite visual moments within a scene. I’d then photograph the image and use it as the basis for a monotype, in which I’d “colorize” the still image with my own choice of color harmonies.
Office Conference
Bay Street Rain
The technique involved working on acetate with a palette of etching inks mixed with linseed oil and oil of clove to obtain the right consistency. I would place the acetate over a reversed image of the movie still, and apply color in this way using the image as a guide. My studio mates laughed and called my technique “monocopy.� Undaunted, I forged on. It normally required up to 6 or 8 separate runs through the etching press to reach the final image, as not all the color would transfer cleanly in a single pass.
Vertigo
Falling Stars
A few years later, while going through certain midlife crisis issues, I felt a need to engage in a kind of artistic self-destruction by trashing my own earlier work. I took my realistic etching plates and woodcuts and used them as pieces within a bigger abstract work. I’d sometimes print them in unusual colors, add woodblock type, or imagery from found or collographed objects in creating this series.
Additional information and images can be found at: http://www.stvnwalker.com/ stvnwalker@yahoo.com Monoprint-Monotype.com
The Departure of Melancholy
Reproduction in whole or part is prohibited without permission of the publisher. All artwork has been reproduced with the kind permission of the artists. Š2017 Donald S. Kolberg