"My artwork always travels through the medium of printmaking."
The images that I create are made to confront the viewer in some way. I draw recognizable objects in contemporary settings.
Sometimes, I use the technique of perspective to draw the viewer into the scene. Shadow and light delineate the objects in my prints.
The addition of color is considered mostly a distraction while black and white concentrates the inner meaning of the art piece.
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The reality of my artwork must be subject to interpretation as I resist drawing too literally or illustratively.
After I draw my images on a stone or plate with a grease pencil, the drawing is processed, inked and pressed to extract the recognizable marks which characterize the medium of lithography.
Composition is always of great concern because lithography is a direct process, which means that after the image is printed, the drawing will appear in reverse.
These and other features of the process usually demand years of study from the artist to prevent the technical demands from overwhelming the art making process.
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Artists who become printmakers share in the working class ethic of this 200 year old process: they become bounded by the medium and its characteristic strokes and scrapes.
I embrace all the blue collar tenets of this utilitarian medium.
The printing presses are crude mechanical devices and the inks have changed little yet I am constantly amazed and inspired by the innovative techniques and imagery that continue to be made by artists who make prints."
Bob Tomolillo
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