Smitten with Monotypes

Inspiration comes from observing nature whether it is finding solace and calm or reflections on climate change. Frequently I work in series to tell a story. I am also intrigued by the complexity of color, patterns, and structural elements in our environment. Monotype printing is well suited to these concepts.

 The prints are made with a gelatin plate and acrylics paints. Each print is unique and immediate. They can include various materials to create surface texture, and, additional hand applied media, such as kozo paper, charcoal, graphite, colored pencils and watercolor. I print on a variety of papers, smooth to textured and light to heavyweight.

Black Hive

Black and White

Towards the end 2019 and the new year of 2020 I felt compelled to shoot more black and white Polaroid. Winter seemed suited to it but I have continued with black and white film through spring and summer. I particularly like dark, black images where forms and shapes emerge and recede. The colors of black, vary from dark black to greys, and can be conducive to the meaning of the image. Darkness merges with the light to create beautiful tonal shifts and shapes.

Themes in My Work

Looking for Calm: Water, Light, Marsh and Trees

Over the last few years I have been working on a series of water and marsh silhouettes. I am drawn to the horizontal bands of muted color that connote a meditative, dreamlike calmness. The eye is drawn to this natural sedative. The images have similarities but are different in light, color and definition.

Trees are repeated images in my work. Some of the images presented are not necessarily a series but reflect a similar narrative. Some seem like obvious pairs or groupings. I contemplate the graceful beauty, fragility and strength of old growth trees and am seduced by my observations, whether through windows, while walking or looking closely at gnarled galls or the subtle colors of lichens.

Homage to Rachel Carson

My most recent series is an homage to Rachel Carson, who was a marine scientist and nature writer. She became known for her warnings about the misuse of organic chemical pesticides such as DDT in her book, Silent Spring. The photographs were taken along the Rachel Carson Greenway Trail in Silver Spring near where I live. The trail follows the Northwest Branch which ultimately flows into the Chesapeake Bay. Her house, where she wrote Silent Spring, is nearby and is owned by the National Park Service.

Maine Evening Light and The Violet End

My brother, poet Michael Fallon, mentioned the poem, The Violet End, that he had written prior to seeing my photograph, Maine Evening Light, on view at Strathmore Mansion in Rockville, MD. Coincidentally, the poem describes the image quite well.

See more on his website: michaelfallonpoetandessayist.com

The Violet End

By Michael Fallon

The sky comes slowly down.

The color of the air—

A blue-violet—deepens.

The yellow windows shine

Through the black branches.

All along the sidewalks,

Beneath the streetlamps

The purples are transparent still,

As waves are beneath the sea,

Clear as the light that

Slides down the rainbow,

Spectrum of the visible, until

The violet ends.

Night comes.

Maine Evening Light at Ocean Point, Maine

Pursuit of Light

Photography is about capturing light in all its vibrancy and subtlety. This brings to mind the poem by William Butler Yeats, He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven. The poet speaks of laying the cloths of heaven at the feet of his beloved. The beautiful cloths are described as resembling the heavens at different times of the day, “ Enwrought with golden and silver light/ The blue and the dim and the dark cloths / Of night and light and the half light”. The desire to capture the changing light, whether exterior or interior, in an image is a constant pursuit.