Artist Statement
Narrative
I am a printmaker and teacher who has been passionate about the many different approaches to creating works on paper we call prints. My specialty is Intaglio Etching however I embrace several printmaking skills that I use and interchange at any time. For more than 3 decades I have been working with Solar Etching Plates creating images by exposing polymer plates to sun and then water generally working towards non-toxic approaches. More recently, the art of letterpress has captured my interest. I have long felt that letters and words belong in art in order to help to further engage the spectator. This new process has made a marked change in my work. And the challenge of balancing just the right amount of image with words is a feat in itself. All of my work involves process. The many steps it takes to get to a finished product, the print, is what keeps my interest and I generally deal with issues that are either personal or have historical value.
Currently represented at National and International Print Fairs by Annex Galleries of Santa Rosa, CA., Bromer Booksellers & Gallery, Boston, MA.
California Society of Printmakers, President and participating artist at North Bay Letterpress Arts in Sebastopol, CA.
Process and Hybrid Prints
I acquired the name Morningstar Press after self-publishing books of prints at North Bay Letterpress Arts. I am a printmaker looking for words to accompany my images to further the idea of art having a message. Typeface become designs dancing around the pages of hybrid prints consisting of solar etchings and collagraphs on Arches BFK Paper. There is vigorous charcoal drawing and some hand painting. An exposed solar plate is set into the cover with a simple version of a Drumleaf Binding.
These prints are studies leading up to the book Excavations. Experimenting with technique and materials and allowing for surprises keeps the process’ constantly changing.
It is my intention to create prints with dimension and thickness of ink in areas to sort of reach out to the spectator causing them to look deeper into the haptic surfaces and perhaps imagine something for themselves along the way.
Prints are generally under glass and never about being touched. Here they are bound and able to be handled and looked at more closely in book form.