Untitled Monotype from Cats and a Few Dogs

 

David Gilhooly

  1943 - 2013 (biography)

1988  

color monoprint 

15 3/4 x 16 3/4" irregular image 

pencil, lower right 

uniquely printed multiple image 

 

 

antique-white Arches wove 

unique 

artist 

18324 

SOLD

From David Gilhooly's website (http://www.davidgilhooly.com/06Bpaper.htm) “The Cat Prints are monotypes. Instead of the usual rectangular plate, the plate happens to be in the shape of a cat. I had found what I thought to be the perfect cat silhouette to use. Maybe it helps to describe it as a cat-shaped window. Inks were applied differently on the plate for each print. Sometimes the plate was washed down with solvents so that the process could be started anew, other times whatever was left on the plate of the previous image was simply inked over to make a ghost image underneath all the new stuff. In 1988, when these prints were being made, I was interested in the surrealist idea of erasing the artist's consciousness from the creation of the work, the idea of random choices, chance and automatic actions. The surrealists tried to create with the unconscious mind. So, under the guidance of the printers at Magnolia Press, I found out about the process of marbleizing. It seemed to be a way of using automaticity in the print process and thereby erased the artist as much as possible in the creation of a work. Or so I thought. Marbled papers are usually used for the end papers of books. Traditionally, the water-based inks are floated on water that has been made viscous with methyl cellulose. The paper is then placed on top of the ink, which sticks to the paper. The ink can be manipulated with a feather or a comb before being applied to the paper and the tray of water can be tipped back and forth to create movement in the inks. It seemed to be a more or less automatic way of working. For this series of prints, oil based ink thinned with solvent was floated on the surface of the water with an atomizer. (I suppose, at this point I should warn you "not to try this at home".) Mylar cut in the shape of a cat was used for the plate, the plate was put through a press and the inks were printed to paper. I decided to reject the usual rectangular plate and thought I had picked the cat shape at random. I actually hadn’t because I used a sort of negative selection. I had rejected other shapes like the rectangle, frogs, beavers and dogs and I landed on cats. This is a selective process, but because I selected by rejecting first, I was fooled into thinking it was a random act.”