In The Process

Printmaking can be a long process. With the collograph pieces I am making, all going towards my visual thesis work, I will end up making over 4,000 prints, hand printed. This will be completed by May, or in some cases before that. I have started the process by making over 50 individual plates. I plan to make at least 75. In addition, I am making four large scale plates. These will be printed as well. What I am after in most cases, are the inked and printed plates. The process of pulling the print corrodes the plate a bit, and that is the ultimate effect I want. In order to complete this effect, I have to make the plate, seal the plate, ink the plate, print the plate, and then use the inked plate in some way beyond its normal use of just a 'printmaking plate'.

All of this ties into Domestic Violence statistics and one part of my visual thesis will be up in a few weeks! Because I don't have an ideal venue to show all of my work, I have broken up my thesis into several smaller suites of images. Each will be showcased at a different smaller community venue throughout Baltimore...one suite to be displayed at 901 Arts in early February.

Anyway, I am still making the plates, but should be printing by this weekend. Here is the pile of plates so far...

More work to be done...more updates to come.