Christopher Noxon: The joy of printing (and loosening up)

Excited to open the studio April 13 and share a bunch of new work, including a dozen-or-so monotypes made with OSA superstar Linda Taylor, whose workshop challenged and expanded my normally-fussy artmaking routine.

Check these out:

"Pink Willow 2," 15 x 11 in:

"Oak," 14 x 11 in:

"Lava flora," 13 x 11 in:

Wild, right? I love the bubbly textures and smears of flat color. Two of these are so-called viscosity prints, where you apply multiple layers of ink of increasing stiffness to a plate so underlying colors break through to the surface in unexpected ways. Like most monotype techniques, it's both precise and unpredictable, a wonderful mix of the exact and the mysterious.

I tend to get fussy and precise in painting, so I love how this medium forces me to stay loose. I feel like part of my job is to remove myself from the image, to quiet my ego/will and get out of the way of whatever the picture wants to be. And this technique feels about as "other" as I can imagine - all these prints feel like products of a kind and much more accomplished artmaker friend.

These plus a bunch of big fussy canvases and a whole lot more will be out for your perusal on Saturday April 13. Please come visit!