Monosummer 2017

MM&S E—Zine

Dedicated to Unique Mark Making

Monoprint, Monotype & Strappo Summer 2017

Volume 2 Issue 2

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: Genevieve Irwin George Skofaus Barbara Lalicki Patricia Wynne Tracy Smith Irving Grunbaum MM&S Magazine is a submission-based, quarterly digital and on-demand print publication.

Cover artwork “Magpie” by Patricia Wynne

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 Summer is here and with it the heat and humidity that makes us look to cool water and fun places to vacation. It also is a time for ramping up the creative juices. And that’s the dilemma. I for one tend to use this time to explore what I need to do with the social media components of my art business. Or if I do find myself wandering aimlessly through some new or unique city or town, I immediately look for art studios and galleries.

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

Genevieve Irwin

Genevieve Irwin is a fine artist and illustrator based in Manhattan. She received her bachelor’s degree from Princeton University in 2012, majoring in Comparative Literature and minoring in Visual Arts. This past spring, she received her MFA in Illustration from the School of Visual Arts.

Before discovering monotypes, Genevieve worked mostly in watercolor and ink. She was searching for a medium that could maintain its expressive and loose quality when moving from a sketch to a finished piece. After watching a demonstration by monotype artist Bruce Waldman at the School of Visual Arts, she was captivated.

She now uses the medium to make portraits (of animals and people) and illustrations for children’s books.

Bramble

When she is not making monotypes in the studio, Genevieve can be found drawing on location. She lets the nature of the scene at hand determine the style and medium that she works in, primarily using sumi-ink and watercolor. In 2015, she was an Artist in Residence for an organization called the UNI Project, which installs pop-up drawing stations around New York City. Her role was to work both on her own observational drawings and to encourage and instruct members of the public. She was recently commissioned to make live illustrations at a wedding reception.

May

This past year, I have been working on a children’s book illustrated entirely in monotypes. The story is centered on the life of Zolushka, an Amur tiger from the Russian Far East. Amur tigers are one of the most endangered species in the world, with less than six hundred remaining in the wild.

It Was A Tiger Cub

Zolushka and Winter

In the winter of 2012, two deer hunters found Zolushka half-frozen in the snow. She was only four months old at the time, and they assumed that poachers had killed her mother. She was raised by a local wildlife organization, returned to the wild, and ended up having cubs of her own. I first heard about Zolushka at a talk hosted by the Wildlife Conservation Society last spring.

Leap

Queen of the Forest

New Family

Kevin the Emu I create the monotypes on Plexiglas, using oil-based etching ink. I primarily work with brayers and use a brush (and a little linseed oil) sparingly. My favorite tools to scrape away the ink are broken popsicle sticks, q-tips, and chopsticks. Once I have pulled the print, I often work back on top with the etching ink and brayers if I feel that the piece needs more dimensionality in certain areas.

I find the monotype medium particularly conducive to depicting animals, as it lends itself to gesture and texture. I also find that it allows me to work from references without the final result looking overly planned or photographic. Since the book that I am working on is based on a true story, references are very important to me. I work from screen-shots of nature documentaries and rely heavily on photographs of Zolushka. I sketch out the compositions with ink and watercolor to give myself a sense of the general mood of the final piece. When I work on the monotypes, I place a piece of paper underneath the glass with a pencil sketch of the final composition underneath it (taking the eventual reversing of the image into account). I have my photo references in front of me, but I make sure never to work from just one photograph. Since I need to ensure that the images flow together smoothly as a series, I always work with the same basic color palette, but I mix the colors in different ways each time.

See Additional work at genevieveirwin.com and Instagram: @girwinart.

Spring at Last

Muffled Steps

George Skofaus

George Skoufas was born (1984) and raised in Teaneck, New Jersey. Pursuing his visceral need to create what can only be defined as art, he earned his BFA from the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. It was while attending SVA he was exposed to the practice of printmaking and became enamored with the process. Since graduation he has worked in a diverse range of industries including as a newsroom editor and furniture craftsman in order to support his artistic practice.

George has exhibited his work in New York City, Tokyo and Fujino, Japan, and New Jersey and will begin working towards his MFA this fall.

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I began printmaking in 2006 and was instantaneously hooked to the process and have been pursuing it ever since. Printmaking is designed for repetition but where the traditional use of this process is duplication, I generally prefer to use the process for variation.

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In creating my monoprints, I use repetition to build upon and evolve previous iterations creating a kind of palimpsestic dialogue that flows through the body of the work and illustrates the fleeting yet impactful nature of existence. This allows me to stay present in the moment of creation, be true to myself and elude inhibition.

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Through an agnostic and absurdist lens, I attempt to straddle the lines between logic and nonsense and control and chaos all while maintaining a sense of openness in the face of uncertainty.

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Additional Information at: http://georgeskoufas.com g.skoufas@gmail.com

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Barbara Lalicki

Formerly an editorial director for children’s books at several major publishing companies, most recently HarperCollins, Barbara Lalicki currently teaches “Creating the Picture Book” with author-illustrator Steve Henry at Pratt/Manhattan. Largely selftaught, Barbara learned by sharing ideas with picture books artists and haunting museums throughout her career. She also studied with Jennifer Griffin, Seth Foreman, Charles Gruppe, Skip Lawrence, David Dunlop, and, very importantly, Bruce Waldman.

Barbara’s portrait of Mick Jagger, “Red Mick,” has appeared in Palette, a national art magazine and she’s participated in various group and individual shows in Northern Westchester, and at the Korea Society and Mehu Gallery in New York City.

You can contact Barbara through her website at barbaralalicki.com

What’s Up

Grandma Moses, Based on Her Sketch

Corsets at the Met

I’ve learned the most by studying great artists and illustrators. Experiencing works by Ludwig Bemelmans, Wanda Gåg, and William Steig, and by Van Gogh, Matisse, Manet and a host of Northern artists from the fantastical Altdorfer to the ultra-realist van Eyck is one my greatest pleasures. And, in my career as a children’s book editor, I relished talks with artists and seeing how they brought their visions to life.

Twosomes

I came to drawing via painting because I wanted to give better definition to my images. Then I discovered monoprints via my drawing teacher, the brilliant monoprint artist, Bruce Waldman, who encouraged me to give it a try.

Boats in Ossining

Lazy Afternoon in Languedoc

When I pulled my first monoprint, I immediately saw the freer, looser line I’d lost in working so hard to perfect my drawings. Unexpected variants to the image stimulated my imagination.

After the thrill of pulling a print and seeing “what happened,” my favorite part is taking it home and working it up to bring out what I see. This might mean a touch—or more--of watercolor, and perhaps some pen-and-ink.

When people look at my paintings—and now my monoprints--I most often hear “charming,” “cheerful,” “makes me happy” and…”you should do a children’s book.” It’s interesting that adults can respond so positively to art, but think it’s meant for someone else.

Dancer, Turn to Rest

Wanderer

Cat Nap I’ve stopped resisting the comment, and realize it’s not realism I’m after, but believable fantasies with a humorous bent that everyone can enjoy.

Octopus’s Garden

Patricia Wynne

Patricia J. Wynne’s art has appeared in more than 200 books for children and adults. She has been publishing since she was eight years old, when her story about an old arrowhead found in her backyard appeared in an airline newspaper. She did her graduate work in printmaking at the University of Iowa, and attended the Iowa Writers Workshop at the same time. After teaching art and art history at the University of Windsor and Wayne State University, initiating a gallery career and working as the staff artist for the Museum of Zoology at the University of Michigan, Wynne moved to New York City and began freelancing. Her first book—an ABC board book edited by Ole Risom—was published by Random House. Other books quickly followed, including a Library of Knowledge series with Random House and Star Wars books illustrated in close collaboration with George Lucas. Wynne has published with more than 20 houses—including Norton, McGraw Hill and Simon and Schuster—creating books on everything from science, to fables. Her editorial art has appeared in publications such as the New York Times, Food and Wine, Cricket and Scientific American and her illustrations and expertise are consistently sought by researchers at the American Museum of Natural History

Additional Information at: patriciawynne.com

Her books have won many awards, including honors from Parenting Magazine, the John Burroughs Association, The National Science Teachers Association and in 2008 Wynne received a Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor. Wynne’s research has taken her all over the world and to such settings as artificial heart labs and the heart of the rainforest.

Wynne continues to work as a freelance artist, telling stories about what she loves: the natural world, science, discovery of all kinds and the faraway realms of the mind’s eye.

Foxes and Crows

Patricia J. Wynne studied printmaking in the Iowa Print Group with Mauricio Lasansky. She taught prints and drawing at the University of Windsor, Canada and is currently teaching etching for the Bronx Botanical Garden. Collections include the Chicago Art Institute and the American Museum of Natural History and she has shown internationally for over forty years.

Crow Winter #2

Ruins on the Prairie

French Standing Stones

Charlie’s Fox

Over the years I have worked in several mediums: pencil and ink drawing, watercolor, intaglio printmaking, box construction, collage and most recently monoprints, but the over-arching unity is an aesthetic and visceral fascination with natural history. Raised in the countryside and spending decades drawing in museums and universities I used the shapes, textures, and connections between the objects surrounding me as yeast for the fermentation of my ideas.

Tiger Moon

Walking the Meadow Snow with Cranes

Line of all kinds is the tool. In the body of my work this has been an overall connection.

My recent monoprints however have been a journey away from this. They are textural rather than linier, quick, rather than prolonged in execution, and largely symbolic of a mood rather than an exploration of natural form. They are mythic, drawing upon a form or an experience from somewhere in my past.

Stillness Broken

In the case of my ten Crow Series monoprints which all use the same basic shape, they differ greatly in mood, from mystery to fear. These works arise from the tension of isolation still alive within a place now changed beyond any semblance. All ten of the Crow Series are deeply personal, however I believe the mind of all Homo sapiens has a unified language that in the art is still heard.

Crows at Stonehenge

Crow #4

Three Horses—White Line

Three Crows and a Ball

Tracy Smith

Born and raised in White Plains, NY. I received an associate degree

in medical technology from Westchester Community College in 1968.

All of my art education has been at the Center for the Arts/WCC/SUNY/NY. I currently teach Tai Chi and have been able to connect my art with Tai Chi by the painting of dragons and koi on Tai Chi flutes (sticks).

I try to include art in all aspects of my life, from painting portraits of cats at our local SPCA to doing individual Christmas cards and tote bags.

Blue Mountains

2 Piece Plate

Blue Plates

City Skyline

To The Moon

Foggy Day

Down by the River

To Contact Tracy email her at: tds123@optonline.net

Yellow Sky

Red Sky

Greens to Blues

Irving Grunbaum

Irving Grunbaum was born in Traunstein, Germany in a Displaced Person’s camp and came to America at the age of two. He grew up on New York City’s lower eastside. Irving graduated from Parsons School of Design.

He has worked as a photographer, graphic designer, and fine artist for more than 40 years. He was a designer and promotion art director at Condé Nast and at Coty, Inc., and is currently a photographer for a jewelry company specializing in diamonds and other gemstones. He also regularly designs covers for a broadband magazine. His primary interest remains printmaking.

Irving has shown his sculpture, photography and prints in numerous exhibitions, most recently at the Mehu Gallery in New York, the Dadian Gallery, in Washington DC. and the Mary Davis Holt Gallery, in Salem College, North Carolina. His work was also included in shows at Sideshow Gallery, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and Sacred Gallery in New York. He was part of a two- person exhibit at The Studio on Slough Road, in Brewster, on Cape Cod, Ma, in 2012.

Assorted Sketch Book Pages

Earth and Sky

Elasticity

Park Leaf Grid

Leafy Grid

Moon Dance

Square Dance

Voyage

Additional Information: igrunbaum@earthlink.net 2211grun@gmail.com Phone: 646 335 5600 http://www.igrunbaum.com https://www.facebook.com/ igrunbaum https://www.pinterest.com/ irvinggrunbaum/irvinggrunbaum/

Pop Grid

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