Monothon at Zygote Press

Earlier this year when I curated the Clampdown: Labor, Management and the Recession exhibition back in my home city, I had the great fortune of being introduced to the awesomeness and brilliance of Liz Maugans: genius artist / constant spark of infectious energy / brains and brawn behind Zygote Press.

from Survivor Series
© Liz Maugans

After much discussion and shared dismay about the economic and political crises of the day -- and particularly how artists respond to that in ways that engage dialogues with the public -- our conversation eventually settled on what we were each producing in our own respective works, and ultimately an invite from Liz to come get inky at Zygote and try my hand at some monoprints as part of Monothon, their annual program that gathers a select group of artists (most with little or no prior experience in formal printmaking) for a month-long fiesta of experimentation and learning new techniques. Finding her invitation too grand to resist, I scheduled a few treks back to Clevelandtown throughout November to take part in the action.

I very quickly discovered the "marathon" aspect of the equation "Monothon = monoprint + marathon", working long days in the studio while subsisting only on pho and banh mi (thankfully right across the street!), only to find myself completely exhausted at the end of each day yet sleepless at nite between excitement, anticipation, scrawling ideas on paper in the dark at 4am, and the cold sweat of monoprint nightmares about paper registration and ink consistency.

But out of it all sprang the beginnings of a new body of work that will likely end up combining photographs and mixed media. Though this as-of-yet untitled series is still in its diaper stages, I'm feeling very drawn towards lithography and collage methods, while my mind is heavily occupied by ideas about the structures of consumer capitalism and its reinforcement through popular media and advertising. We'll see where the series evolves to from here, but in the meantime I'll share a few quick sketches of some early creations:

Fool's Gold #1
lithograph
8.5x11"

Fool's Gold #3 (lithograph and plexi plate in production)

Shopping #1
chine colle print
22x15"

Huge thanks and props to Liz and the entire crew at Zygote, and also to all the other artists invited for Monothon. Being able to dedicate straight time to just working in the studio was a temporary slice of heaven that made the 12-hour workdays and mental fatigue and early frustrations all worthwhile. Zygote is truly one of those magical artist-colony-like places that many creative people yearn for in some capacity: sense of community, meeting all types of artists from different backgrounds and approaches, a selfless helping hand or soundboard for ideas when needed, inspiration around every corner, and a hell of a fun time non-stop.

If you're in/near Clevelandtown this weekend, Zygote will be exhibiting select works from each Monothon participant -- this Saturday from 1-4pm; Zygote is at 1410 E. 30th St. downtown, just north of Superior Ave. Give them some love and support and check out all the Monothon artists:

Judy Takacs
Melissa Daubert
Scott Goss
Jonathan Wayne
Nancy McEntee
Paul Rogers
Rebecca Cross
Kristen Cliffel
Mallorie Freeman
Judith Brandon
Pita Brooks
Paul Sydorenko