Artist Jessica Dzielinski reviews some of the mono-print works she made during her time The Grand. She describes the mono-print process as a cross between drawing and printing. “It looks different,” she said. “It gives the image dimension to a flat material. The contrast between light and dark is interesting.”
NEW ULM–The Grand Center for Arts and Culture’s latest Artist-in-Residence, Jessica Dzielinski, completed her three-week stay in New Ulm with a small trove of new mono-prints.
Dzielinski is a Minneapolis-based artist, specializing in book arts along with drawing and painting. Her multi-media practice focuses on the image as a visceral retelling of everyday moments merged with fantasies, warped memories, archetypes, and mythologies.
During her time at Cellar Press, Dzielinski explored the idea of text as both an image and a mantra by creating mono-printing on canvas and dyed fabric, using handmade lettering stencils, tracing, and photo transfer.
Mono-printing is a technique where a unique, one-of-a-kind print is created by transferring an image from a surface to paper, with the design typically being destroyed or altered after the first print, making follow-up prints impossible.
“A lot of printing is about making different versions of the same image, but with mono-printing, usually only one copy is created,” Dzielinski said.
The Grand’s Artist-in-Residence Jessica Dzielinski stands in front of a drying rank with some of her recent print works.
Sometimes it is possible to create a second print, but is never exactly the same as the first and likely has less detail than the first.
The method of creating the print is also different. Dzielinski said traditional printing involves carving into a printing substrate or laying out blocks. With mono-printing, she paints directly onto a surface and then presses the image onto a new surface. Instead of carving, she uses stencils and stamps to create different layers in the print. Other times she will draw directly on the print surface to get the desired design.
“It is almost a cross between drawing and printing,” Dzielinski said. “It looks different. It gives the image dimension to a flat material. The contrast between light and dark is interesting.”
During her time in New Ulm, she created different mono-prints of statues and landmarks from around New Ulm. One of her favorite images was a recreation of a horse engraving she saw at the New Ulm Monument. The horse print is one of the dozens Dzielinski was able to make in her time at The Grand.
“There is a quickness and efficiency about [mono-printing],” she said. A typical printing method would have taken longer and resulted in fewer unique pieces.
Jessica Dzielinski holds up a mono-print that she may use as a background in a future painting.
Dzielinski said the hardest part of mono-printing is accepting loss.
“If a print does not turn out, there is not a lot you can do,” she said. “You must accept the unpredictability of it.”
The benefit of mono-printing is it encourages experimentation.
“I like the playfulness of it,” she said. “I am into the immediacy of it.”
Dzielinski said that some of the pieces she created during the residency, it was only the beginning. She intended to reuse the prints in other projects. Some of the prints will be reused as painting backgrounds. Other prints will be combined with other works by physically stitching them together. It gives the piece a Frankenstein monster appearance.
Artist Jessica Dzielinski spreads out some of her mono-print pieces she created during her residency at The Grand. Dzielinski was able to create dozens of pieces during her time in New Ulm.
Dzielinski said that was one of the benefits of The Grand residency. It allowed her the time and space to explore different ideas and use the available resources. Most of the printing tools at The Grand are not regularly available for Dzielinski. The residency and the mono-printing method offered a high level of artistic freedom.
“It is the Wild West of printmaking,” Dzielinski said.
Much of Dzielinski’s artwork can be found on Instagram “@animalstressdreams”.
The Grand’s Artist-in-Residence Jessica Dzielinski holds up one of the monoprints she created. The piece was created using stencils. Dzielinski is considering using the print as part of large work.
