Here we have a series of Monoprints partly inspired by some of my random sea kayaking trips, and also by some of the work of Newfoundland printmaker, David Blackwood. Some of Blackwood's prints had a theme where the lower part of the image had someone such as a sailor or fisherman asleep in the cabin of a ship and the rest of the image would depict their dreams of home or whatever. Generally though when I was kayaking, after a long day of paddling I'd lay out my sleeping stuff and go to sleep to dreams about bad weather, being lost, eaten or tormented by the wildlife, etc... and then there are a couple that are just random scenery.

I made these for one of my printmaking classes, though I don't entirely remember what the point of the assignment was. They were sort of a side project while working on two other very tedious prints ("Death and the Chamois Hunter" and "Nighttime Wanderings") that were due at the end of the semester. Part of the purpose of these prints was to get me to work outside of my usual comfort zone by working on a larger scale than I was used to for printmaking, and to use a medium that forced me to work quickly. These monoprints were made by rolling ink out onto sheets of plexiglass and using brushes, rags (as well as fingers or whatever else might work), to make the image on the inked plexiglass. It is a very painterly kind of printmaking technique where the entire image has to be created on the plate with no engraved or etched lines to hold the ink, and the plate must then be printed before the ink becomes too dry, so creating of the image on the plate has to happen very quickly. This sort of work was a refreshing distraction from the smaller and far more tedious prints that I was working on during the semester.