Barbara is a multi-faceted expressionist artist whose work includes painting, printmaking and jewelry. Barbara’s work is predominantly abstract with textural surface, mark making and composition being very important to her work.
Barbara was born in New York City but has lived most of her life in the Southwest. The influence of the Southwest can be seen in many of her works. She previously owned two contemporary galleries in Tubac, Arizona and now teaches Monotype Without a Press in her studio located in Tubac.
Barbara began her college art studies at a community college followed by classes at Arizona State University. Barbara continues her art education today through workshops with professional artists and has participated in several monotype printmaking workshops with a Master Printmaker in Sante Fe, NM. It was in those workshops that Barbara developed a real passion for printmaking and experimenting with the various printmaking techniques.

---What is a monotype---

Often the terms monotype and monoprint are used interchagebly, however there is a difference between them. A monotype is essentially one of a kind. It is one printed image whch does not have any form of matrix. A monoprint has some form of basic matrix, such as an etched plate. The process of creating a monotype and monoprint is the same, but when doing monotypes, the artists works on a clean unetched plate. With monoprints, there is always a pattern or part of an image that is constantly repeated in each print.

Among printmaking techniques monotypes is the most paintely method. The chharacteristic on monotype is that no two prints are alike and editioning is not possible. When two montypes are created from one unetched plate, the second is often referred to as the "ghost" because it was pulled from the ink remaining on the plate after the first images had been pulled.

The monotype appeal lies in its unique translucency that creates a quality of light very different from a painting on paper or a print. The beauty of this media is in its spntaneity and combination of printmaking, painting and drawing mediums which creates a surface unlike any other art.

Working with water based inks and printing station, I can obtain strong impressions which may include Chine Colle. Chine Colle ( Chinese collage) is special technique in printmaking in which the images is tranferred to a surface that is bonded to a heavier support in the printing process. This technique allows me to print on a much more delicate surface, such as Japanese papers, which pulls finer details of the plate. Another purpose is to provide a background color behind the image that is different from the surrounding backing sheet.

Barbara Kuzara

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