j o h n  r o s

from before ii — a look at vsc past
december 2006

february 2002 was john’s first visit to the vermont studio center in johnson, vermont. his main goal during his month-long residency was to further explore colour in his over-printed monotypes. he had hit colour previously throughout the late nineties, but never really engaged a full-colour print in the over-printing method be became so passionate with.
a monotype is a single pull from a plate that has been ‘painted’ on with ink and paint. it is then pulled through a press, with the reverse image revealed on the paper. john used the spontaneous happenstance in the pressing process to explore possibilities between the conscious and unconscious states of being. in these abstractions, he then placed images over already printed ones, creating a single image. printed up to seven times, these images maintain the integrity and quality of a print, yet create a new complexity through the layering and flattening aspects of the over-printing technique.