I painted and printed a plate yesterday which had a distinctly different composition than many of the monotypes I’ve done so far. The image depicts four figures lined up in a row, all in similar poses. I liked the ambiguity of this arrangement of figures, as a set up like that between four figures seems like it has to be a deliberate pose agreed upon between the figures. This is in direction opposition to many of the other monotypes which depict figures that are separate and not acknowledging the others. Oddly enough, the idea of figures lined in a row seems to be a consistent theme in all of my projects, no matter what the context or subject. I remember when I was researching images for the Digging Series that I also found images of people lined up in a row, digging.

This image was pretty tough to tackle because the four figures crowded the composition, and because I had to find a way for their reflections in the water to interact while still staying distinctly independent from the others. It may warrant further experiments to see how to strike the right balance in such a full composition. This monotype was #17, so I’ve got three more to go before I reach twenty prints total.