CONTENTS
 

The Marina Suite

Detail Marina Series
The Marina Suite is a large monotype series, around 500 prints, done at the graphic workshop in Fort Mason, in the marina district of San Francisco.  The individual prints are named after streets in the marina, which seems appropriate for the images.

After experimenting with the medium in various ways and directions, I discovered a very thin mylar that can be rolled with ink, textured in various ways, and used as a collage element.  The thinness of the mylar has two very advantageous qualities: it can be overlapped without showing an embossment  of the under piece (important in giving the illusion of forms existing in space) and it doesn't leave a white line around the shapes , as thicker forms do, separating them from the background in an awkward way.
Detail Marina SeriesInitially I prepare a number of pieces of mylar rolled with ink.  Some of the inked pieces are textured in various ways, by splattering them with solvent, scraping into the ink with pieces of matboard, etc.  These pieces are then cut into a variety of  shapes, sometimes using a pinking shears, until I have a large group to chose from.  Then I begin assembling them into a collage construction, usually arranged on a sheet  of paper the size of the printing plate.  This way I feel I have some idea as to how these constructions will relate to the printed rectangle.

When I have the construction assembled (the shapes are stuck together because of the wet ink and can usually be moved in one piece) I roll the printing plate with ink and position the construction on the inked surface.  Any addition I want, either with brushing on color or adding more inked pieces of mylar, are done at this time. Detail Marina Series

The plate is then put through the press with dampened paper and all of the inked surfaces of mylar remain on the plate with just the illusion of the shapes transferred to the paper.  Any additions of watercolor or colored pencil I feel are needed are done after printing.

My primary art mediums are collage and collage construction. The Marina Suite monotypes are based on these collage ideas.  It is, as is the majority of my work, non-objective.  I seldom set out to represent specific images.  I am, however, aware that images are often suggested by the forms I use.  The viewer is welcome to find them in my work, but I feel it is "completed" by the emotional responses conjured up by the forms themselves.
 


James Zver

1989
The California Suite    The Marina Series