Semester before last, right as we were getting a rather nasty wet spell that meant that nothing was going to dry until the next century, I wrapped up the semester for printmaking with a series of abstract prints aimed toward decalcomania–a surrealist technique paint is spread upon the surface to be painted on, and then covered with material such as paper, foil, plastic wrap. It’s removed while still damp, and leaves behind an abstract pattern that is then used as a guideline for the painting to be. This relies on processes like Pareidolia, the tendency to see faces in things. The technique was a favorite of Max Ernst’s.

That said, a few of the resulting pieces–I used butcher’s paper I had crumpled before hand, and ran monoprints through the press–were very striking without further alteration. This, being one. The vibrant inks and forms, somewhere between geometric and organic, almost feel like witnessing a computer glitch in person. It is certainly a technique I wish to experiment with more! …even if I don’t wind up producing a painting on top of it. C:

Figment
What do you see?
Flickering at just the edge of your gaze.

[ S6 ]