SUMMARY STATEMENT
Ultimately "Passe Part-out Pochoir" work explores the structures of consealment and how they shape our perception. The acts of framing and masking become components of the image itself. The first layer of the cut-mat is a window or a mirror of the observer's selective attention. It is a metaphor for life - we hide as much as we show of ourselves to others.
ARTIST DISCUSSION
As a printmaker I have always been focused on the "process" of making art. In my early years of printing I moved easily among the various techniques. My interest in abstract images led me to emphasize monoprinting.
Creating a monotype I often use masking on a polymer gel plate and employ many colors and layers. Quite by accident I laid down a sheet of card stock from which I had cut masking figures on top of a completed monotype. I realized this cut sheet had become a stencil and it showed the monotype only through the cut holes in the paper. This was the beginning of what I call Passe Part-out Pochoir. It means literally "the mat is a stencil".
As I began to work more with this new idea, I developed a framework for understanding. The cut mat acts as a visual editor of the monotype background. The cut-out shapes in the mat determine exactly what part of the underlying print is revealed and what remains permanently hidden. Just as in everyday life -
there is a powerful tension between what is seen and what is concealed.
When I create a Passe Part-out Pochoir piece, it is designed to emphasize this tension. At the center of this layered process is an expressive monotype - a singular, unrepeatable transfer of ink to paper or canvas that captures my creative inspiration of the moment.
But there are two structural images at play. The second is in the image cut into the over-mat. Together they create a composite piece of artwork. Sometimes I create a densely cut mat that shows most of the monotype. Other times I cut small areas in the mat which only sparsely show the background image. Both methods can be interesting, focusing on the question of what is intended.
It is the goal of my work with Passe Part-out Pochoir to explore how structures of containment shape our perceptions. I hope these structural presentations of stencil and background encourage observers to consider the hidden filters that guide all visual interpretation in everyday life.
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Flowers in a Burgundian Vase
Passe Partout Pochoir Monoprint
Jim Lowman - Artist
INFO: Click here to see full Mono Print
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Stick Your Neck Out
Pochoir Passe-Partout over Acrylic Monoprint
Jim Lowman
INFO: Click here to see full Mono Print
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