Monotype Series 7 (Exogenesis)

First successful full-sheet run using acrylic on alum-mordanted washi. Color schemes drawn from old book endpapers — lapis, bronze, black, yellow. Alum mordant was used to make the pigment hold cleanly at full-sheet scale.

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Large periwinkle bubbles clustered and outlined in black, yellow droplet channels running between them like egg sacs Large pink cellular masses speckled with yellow and blue droplets, a dark marbled band running along the bottom edge Periwinkle and yellow droplet clusters suspended in black ground with bronze edges creeping in from the margins Yellow and white droplets scattered across bronze ground with blue veins connecting them like a star chart Turbulent blue, pink, and bronze currents marbled with black, a fine combed non-pareil pattern along the lower edge Periwinkle field with black droplet clusters and bronze rivulets running through, lapis-and-gold tonality Blue circular pools embedded in a pink and yellow droplet field, dense black veining binding the cells together Curving ribbons of pink, yellow, and periwinkle threaded with black, sweeping diagonally across cream washi

I wanted to work with antique Western marbling palettes, but I was thinking Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space the whole time. What came out looked more like alien biology than bookbinding — cell clusters, spores, something arriving on a meteor. A nice pairing.

Chris De Giere
Acrylic on washi paper
Monotype (paper marbling)
8×12 inches (20.32 × 30.48 cm)
2025

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