Gelli Prints

Artist Statement

My Gelli prints are a simple background of abstract, blotchy, ink and in the case of the extended print, pen. The idea was mostly spur-of-the-moment, and I wasn't sure I would find an idea for my extended print, but I did. I decided to add a line drawing over the print, and the oval shape looked like a head to me, so I drew a face for it.

I made these pieces with a Gelli plate, which is an artificial gelatin block on top of which I added ink from the roller, which I rolled on in increments to create a textured background. I liked the roughness of the background because it would create a piece that was more visually interesting than a solid block of colour. The oval shape that appears was made from laying a rubber band on top of the inked Gelli print before pressing the paper on it. I would have used more materials, but I didn't have anything else that would make a pattern without blocking ink from actually printing on the paper.

I did not do any prior research or use any reference photos for the Gelli prints. I used blue ink because I thought it would be more interesting than plain black, and I was quite happy with that decision when I went over my third print with a black pen. The original print was actually the second print I made. After putting the rubber band on the Gelli print and printing one paper, I took the rubber band off and printed a second paper, the one shown above. The rubber band formerly blocked the ink from getting to the paper, so the surrounding paper was lighter, as the ink had been partially displaced on the first paper, but the actual circle where the rubber band used to be was darker. By the third paper, which I used for my extended print, the background was much lighter, but the circle still showed up a little more. I rotated the print so it was portrait-style instead of landscape-style and saw a head. Then I added the line drawing of a face to complete the print.