Last Night I Dreamed I Made Monoprints

I was in a local studio, signed up for an entire weekend of monoprinting (which, BTW, I've never done IRL), sitting at a big table next to a very peripheral acquaintance who is actually a fine painter whose works sell for big bucks (and a cool guy ).

I was brrrrrrilliant! Ok, maybe not brilliant, but in the dreamtime I was able to forego all that learning-your-medium time and head straight for successful experimentation. I dabbed paint onto the glass with a brush, and then I made squiggles in the paint with a sharp plastic thing and Q-tips. I put on paint and removed it with a cheesecloth. I anticipated places on the paper that would be collaged, and I was in the flow, in the groove...but it's a funny thing -- I don't remember actually pulling any prints, just preparing the glass.

My work, I humbly propose, was combination of Italian Renaissance landscape-inspired compositions with a bit of Kenneth Patchen thrown in, but more uniquely feminine.

At one point the teacher asked me if I wanted to perhaps turn the paper horizontally, but I said, oh no, and explained about the Renaissance landscapes (it's good to have a vertical space to get all those little Italian hills into the background...)

I remember deciding to write backwards onto the paper before I monoprinted it even though obviously it would still be backwards in the final project. I thought this was such a clever little pun. I wrote in loopy letters (backwards) "Hand it over or I'll kidnap your wife..." which made my artiste friend howl with laughter. And then near the top I wrote some stuff in French. I put the paper next to the glass and made a composition that was sort of like a certain Giorgione painting, with a detective in what would become the bottom left.

Dang, the whole thing was a big ole left brain/right brain exercise. Today I feel psychically cleansed, LOL!

Yes, what a great weekend I had in my dream. Excuse me now, I must hot glue a pinback to a recycled metal brooch.