Collograph Prints

 I've been taking a printmaking class, which I love. Besides carving the occasional linoleum block, I don't get much done on my own. If only I had a printing press of my own...

The first one is a hand-colored collograph. It is titled "I wrote my name on the back of a leaf and I watched it drift away." A lyric from a song. It's not my best work, it’s a little clumsy, but the color helps.

I have done a lot of work with gloves, but mostly in clay. I was fascinated with an image from the 19th century of a woman's kid-glove printed with a tourist map of London. How ingenious: you could walk around looking at your glove, discretely getting directions. What else could you put on a glove? Answers to a test? Secrets? Maps for the memory impaired (don't misplace those gloves!) This collograph (made from split gloves) is printed in burnt umber, love that color.

This is two versions of the same plate. One in burnt umber, one in two colors. You can see the plate is starting to collapse in the blue version. You can clearly see the lower layers through the shape of the barn.

This is my favorite, it is a double ghost. A ghost is when you run a printed plate back through the press to pick up the leftover ink. I used the house and the glove together. Looks like poetry.