CMY? oK
Melissa S. Peralta
CMY?oK are a series of 18"x24" prints exploring color, shape, and pattern. By using screen printing, it allowed me to overprint and exhaust all possible color combinations and permutations. As someone who is primarily an etcher, detail oriented to the extreme, and avidly avoids color and works in nothing but black, this was somewhat of a challenge for me. The first series of prints I created were monotypes featuring random found objects (gloves, flowers, blank etching plates) that were inked up in a variety of colors. This resulted in spontaneous patterns with interesting textures but the color payoff was inconsistent. Unsatisfied with the results, I turned to screen printing, a faster and more graphic means of printing. For the colors I limited myself to using only three colors, Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow. As for the patterns, I scavenged the school’s printshop for multiples of the same object, which were plastic lids, scraps of newsprint, mount board pieces, and twine.
I created 4 different screens for per object, each organized within a grid based system. When overprinting, I used the same grid system to determine what angle to print my multiple layers. This whole process led me to create bold abstract patterns where no two prints are alike.