And so.. I finally came up with a couple of ideas that I liked. This one is the intaglio print of the poem, plus a panel created using thread, turpentine and oil, with a backdrawn roughly scribbled motif on the corner.  It’s printed on a piece of mulberry paper with visible fibres. The whole thing has become a meditation on trees- the shapes, the products (paper), the connotation in the poem, the reference to cloisters and monkish scribes…

Mid Cloisters Dim: Intaglio, monoprint on mulberry paper 32 x 45 cm

And this one, on a scroll of “rice” paper has the intaglio print in the middle, with thread and ghost prints. The trees image on the right is done in three layers, using a kind of “pochoir” technique where I inked and turned lozenge shapes of paper as the negative shapes which became the patches of light. The panel on the right is using the same technique as before- oil, turpentine and this time, thread inked in red.

Mid Cloisters Dim 2: Intaglio, monoprint on rice paper scroll 40 X 80 cm

I have to say I like these. I like the composition of longer panel especially, and the mixed techniques- intaglio for the text, masked monoprint and painting texture to create depth in the trees image,  contrasting with the flat textural abstract image on the left. The thread operates as a link on both a visual and a metaphorical level, and worked as a “cleaner” version of the scribble above. In both of these the white paper plays a big part, and the torn edge of the image on the right is important as a variant, which also links back to paper as a subject. I tend to enjoy this convoluted cross-referencing.