ICA Monotype Marathon

This was a very busy month... not only was there the show at the Los Gatos Coffee Roasting company (until this Saturday), and the glass blowing class and a couple of other little things. But there was also the "Monotype Marathon" organized by the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA). This is a pretty cool fundraiser event for the ICA. Here is how it works:

Artists find a sponsor (or they self-sponsor) to be in a half-day intense workshop where they crank out a couple of monotypes. The best one of these monotypes goes into an auction which acts as a fund-raiser for the ICA. The remaining monotypes become property of the artist. The sponsor pays a certain amount of cash to sponsor one (or two) artists's participation at the marathon. For each sponsored artist, the sponsor is allowed to bid on one monotype at the auction and the money they paid in sponsorship counts as the opening bid for their chosen piece.

OK, confused already? Well, it does sound a bit confusing, but it really all makes sense. The cool thing is that really everybody benefits from this scheme. The artist gets access to top notch print-making facilities (including expert printmakers as assistents) for a couple of hours + gets all the materials needed (sponsored by various companies). The artist also gets to keep all except one print. The ICA puts on a cool event and raises money. The sponsor has to shell out some money first but this money is then used as opening bid for one of the pieces they want to buy anyway. So really, everybody wins!

Maybe I should backtrack for a moment and explain that monotype is a print-making technique which lives somewhere in between painting and classical print-making. It is sometimes referred to as "painterly printmaking". The resulting prints are one-of-a-kind works and typically are marked with "1/1" because they are the first print from an edition of 1. Artists often make series of prints where one print is developed out of the "ghost" of the previous one. But each monotype in the series is unique.

I created 2 series at the marathon. My first monotype (the one that is in the auction) was built in several layers (meaning it was run through the press several (4) times) and was relatively complex (the top image on the left). After that one I started from scratch and made a series of 4 monotypes where one was developed out of the ghost of the previous one. The last two of that series are shown on the left as well. Maybe I should also mention that these are the largest prints I've ever tried - all of them are 22" x 30". As I have only a small press myself, I typically work on much smaller prints.

As mentioned, one of the monotypes is in the auction. The auction preview opened last week and is on show till July 15 at the ICA, the day of the auction. The auction is open to the public and will definitely be a fun and exciting event to watch! More information can be found on the ICA web site.

The ICA is located on 451 South First Street in downtown San Jose. Gallery hours are Tues, Weds, Fri: 10:00 - 5:00, on Thursday: 10:00 - 8:00 and on Saturday: 12:00 - 5:00. Admission is free! So there are no excuses not to check it out! :)