Scaling Up the Monotypes

Along North San Carlos Trail Head, 2016, monotype, image 10 x 8 inches, paper 15 x 11 inches 

Recently I have been thinking of making bigger prints, but perhaps the biggest push is coming from my friend, and fellow painter/printmaker Rob.  What will happen if I'm put in front of a big plate and go at it?  I have yet to work with a big plate but slowly I'm moving in that direction.  These two prints are 8x10 images, so far that's the biggest I've gotten with these.  I think this format works well for me, the prints are a little bigger but they still retain a level of intimacy which has been the main focus of most of my work through the years.  

Cold Spring Woods, 2016, monotype, image 10 x 8 inches, paper 13 x 10 inches

I work small because I think it works best for me and because I'm a firm believer that art doesn't have to be big to be taken seriously.  Some of the most beautiful works of art in the history of mankind have been on the smaller scale.  There's too much crap out there that gets attention because it's big and flashy, this doesn't mean that it's any good, or that the attention it's receiving is a good thing.  In the end the work has to have an element of surprise every time you look at it, which is not to be confused with shock value.  Once people get the gimmick, or formula, it doesn't matter how large the work is, in the end it still fails to be transcendent.