The Wakeby Monotypes: A Photo Diary "Over a period of three weeks in January 1983, I printed six large-scale monotype triptychs and numerous smaller-scale monotypes comprising revisions and adjustments leading up to the printing of the final monumental pair, Wakeby Day and Wakeby Night. This Photographic diary documents a prepresentative day of printing with master printer Robert Twonsend at the R.E. Townsend Studio in Georgetown, Massachusetts, captured in the photographs of Boston photographer Greg Heins." -Michael Mazur Wakeby Day II, 1983, monotype (tryptych) left panel: 71.5 x 43.5 inches, center panel: 71.5 x 47.375 inches, right panel: 71.25 x 43.25 Collection of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York Work on the 6-by-12-foot monotype triptych Wakey Day begins at 9:00 A.M. with mixing two blue inks for the striated background color. "Draw downs," or color tests, are kept nearby so they can be matched for each plate. Townsend and I work a large roller back and forth to pick up and displace thinnner and deeper blues, creating watery striations. Townsend and I work a large roller back and forth to pick up and displace thinnner and deeper blues, creating watery striations. I then work with a small roller over the right anc center plates, which are lined up for proper registration. The right-side plate, which measures 72 by 48 inches, is lifted on a moveable tabletop into a vertical position for easel-height painting with brushes. When the painting reaches a certain point, Townsend and I use rollers to pick up, move, and offset parts of the parinting (notice the offsetting that can be read on the roller surface). The roller is used as a tool with which to paint the image as well as lay out color. I begin work on the inset plate, a thin sheet of aluminum that will lie on the surface and be printed at the same time as the plate upon which it is placed. It will be worked separately from the large plates, but I will place it from time to time to see how it works with the rest of the image. In the print it will function as a palimpsest of the same area, seen at another time of day. Again, the roller is used with the inks of differing viscosicties to add new colors to the inset plate. It is now noon. I have nearly completed working on the inset plate. After lunch, I continue to work on both the plate and the inset plate, integrating them with small rollers, or brayers. I use my hand. I also use brushes. After Townsend and I move the plate onto the bed of the press, we reposition the inset plate, which has been divided to spand the center and right plates of the triptych. I stand over the press bed to get a better view of the image. The left-side plate will be at the right side of the final image, as it will be reversed in printing. Each of the three plates takes three to four hours of painting. All three plaes must be finished before any one of them can be printed in order to ensure proper integration and resolution of the triptych. Oils are added to the inks and the thinners to retard drying, but there is always the risk that delicate areas will dry out before they can be printed. I finish work on the right-side plate while townsend prepares the paper, which is about 84 by 60 inches. He sprays it with water to make the fibers softer, more "ink loving," and rolls it up to make it easier to bring to the press. We unroll the damp paper onto the plate. The bed of the press, orignially used for gluing plywood veneers, measures 67 by 100 inches. It was redesigned and refitted for this project. Its hydraulic and manually adjusted pressure provides about two thousand pounds of weight per square inch. The right and center panels are attatched to the wall for viewing. After printing, Townsend and I remove the paper from the plate and get a first indication of the quality of the print. At this point, about 11:00 P.M., while the ink is still workable, I make additions to the residue left on the plates after printing and reprint a full-size cognate (called the ghost image) of the previous print (Wakeby Day II). I Study the results. Work stops and we clean up at 1:00 A.M. Wakeby Night, 1983 monotypeand pastel (tryptych), 72 x 136.5 in. National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washingtion, D.C., Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Halff, Jr., Judith Ross, and Kurth and Kim Butenhoff, and Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment