ManicWorld Magazine

– Collages and gel prints, where did it all start for you?

I started as a photographer, getting a BofA from the California College of Arts and crafts in photography. Once I switched to digital photography I became somewhat disillusioned with pressing buttons to make art. Being adept at photoshop and the concept of layers I experimented with printmaking by separating a photo into CMYK and hand printing the images using polyester lithography. It was a nice marriage of technology and traditional craft, I was hands-on in my artmaking again. I now had a printmaking practice along with my photography. 

In the early days of Covid we were in Taos, NM and could not get back to work in my studio in Sausalito CA. I had picked up a gel plate a few weeks before but hadn’t opened it, so gel plate printing was my lockdown craft. By now I had experience in lithography, monoprinting, and silk screen printing so I brought elements of those practices to Gel Plate printing. Instead of burning screens I was cutting stencils, and mark making with anything I could find, old combs, toothbrushes, dog brushes, egg cartons etc. If it could leave an impression, I tried it.

Collage came before Gel printing. I was always fascinated with image dynamics and what makes one photo work and another one not. I was taught all the photography rules and know that using them can make a photo correctly proportioned but bland. Going back to the idea of layers I took photographs that inspired me, cut them into their component parts and rebuilt them as hand cut collages. First with images from photo art history, then fashion photography of the 50’s and 60’s, then album covers. Now I was a collage artist too. I do on occasion combine a collaged figure on a gel printed background, uniting the mediums. 

Another aspect of my collage work is digital collage, where I can be quite surreal. I guess I have made peace with pressing buttons to make art.

– How have you become this artist that has experience in all these different mediums? 

When I get an idea for a project I work out how to make it with the skill set that I have. If I feel it can’t be achieved with my existing skills I will take a class or two, read some books and integrate it into my practice. I took a class on laser cutters for printmakers. I saw a lot of potential in cutting intricate stencils. I bought it and learned the different things that it could and couldn’t do for my art practice. As a balance to another technological tool I took classes on traditional lino cutting and embossing. I use technology to revisit traditional craft.

There is a company that now makes screen printing equipment for laser cutters. I had abandoned screen printing because of the toxic chemicals and the wasted water used in the process. Now I can go from concept, to computer, to laser cutter, to printing in about an hour. Some of  my latest works combine gel printing, lino printing, and screen printing in the same image. 

With so many exciting ways to create at my fingertips whenever I get stuck or blocked with one project I switch to using things in a new way, or learning a new skill set, I call it creative procrastination.

– Do you believe that art should be for everyone?

Yes, definitely! Unfortunately a lot of homes have art prints from cheap stores so they can have something aesthetic in their environment. I work primarily on paper and feel that affordable art is essential so I sell my original art at prices compatible to the mass produced art product.

I believe that if a painting hasn’t sold, why put it in storage where nobody can see it? I have been known to slice paintings into bookmarks and sell an original painting that now has an everyday function for $5. There is something wonderfully cathartic in cutting a painting and giving it a new purpose, I also rearrange and photograph the painting to make backgrounds for digital collages.