A series of monoprints done in 1983 gave me the very challenging prospect of learning to draw blind and remain decisive, and in proportion, while drawing in reverse. It taught me (1) surrender to the process, and (2) collaborate with the medium, and thus set me up wonderfully well for the acrylics on plexiglas I co-created with my materials in the late 80s.
In the monoprint process a printing paper is placed face down in ink rolled onto a glass surface; the artist draws upon the reverse side; pencil pressure transfers ink onto the paper with the artist having no assurance of final result until the paper is pulled away and turned over.
Extraordinary good luck stayed with me as the entire series of about three dozen prints were, on the overall, as bold and incisive as this one detail.
One gallery, bullied by feminists and its own board of directors, reversed its contract to exhibit the series and informed me I would never exhibit with them again unless I found other subject matter; one gallery accepted them but kept them in its print drawer until deciding to return them all to me; The University of Waterloo did exhibit ten of them in 2005. One viewer wrote in the comments column of the exhibit diary: “You gotta be kidding”.
fillière 