Almost As Good As “The Price Is Right”.

If you’re a loyal follower, reader, lurker of this blog you know that tomorrow is the big contest day. So I thought I’d do a post about what you’ll be competing for. After all, if it’s not to your liking, the 3 readers in Australia might as well sleep in!

Papillon Noir #13, 2008. Mixed-Media Gocco serigraph on paper.

Image size: 12.5 cm x 17.5 cm. Printed in an edition of 100.

Mounted on watercolor paper measuring 20 cm x 30 cm.

Now let me explain a bit about the process. The color in each work is added by hand in several layers of acrylic ink and Gouache. Then once the color has dried the image layer is added using a Gocco screen which is pretty much a silk-screen technique. But what makes Gocco prints so special now days is that they are no longer in production (as far as I know) and eventually it will be impossible to keep producing them without the set of special supplies that are needed to use the printing apparatus.

Anyway, this particular print is one of two prints from the “Fly Away” series that I started working on about a year ago. I often allude to flight in my work. Lately the people in my work have grown wings. I’m also a super huge fan of "The People Could Fly". I’m not sure if it’s obvious in the jpg image but the image is of a silhouette of a little girl who has butterfly wings. Can you see that?

I intentionally scanned the image at a fairly low resolution to prevent some Chinese sweatshop from turning my work into a poster for IKEA, so much of the subtlety of the washes of color and the overlay of the image have been lost in translation. So you’ll just have to take my word on how booo-tiful it is.

As indicated, it is number 13 in an edition of 100 prints. However, since each print is hand colored, no two prints are actually alike. And contrary to what Tyler Durden says, each print is a beautiful and unique snowflake, and I only have a handful left.

OK, enough already. Good Luck and Godspeed!