Chariots of the anthropocene: MFA Thesis - Printmaking

Abstract

This series of prints begins a body of work that addresses the subject of climate change, including man's role in accelerating it and exacerbating its effects. I chose the medium of monotype because it is a painterly printmaking process which allows for a spontaneous method of working conducive to a more abstract, freer form of expression. Monotype is a printmaking process in which an image is made from a smooth non-absorbent surface that has been inked. Because the matrix is smooth, or unarticulated, there is no repeatable image being transferred therefore each print is unique. Using a large piece of plexiglass as a matrix, my technique involves printing multiple layers on top of one another. Ideas and associative meanings, signified by color and mark making, are printed in layers superimposed on top of preceding layers. In this way an overall composition is formed by combining individual layers. This is suggestive of multiple natural phenomena interconnecting and combining to form an overall climate. On top of these multiple layer monotypes I add screen printed elements emphasizing other key concepts.