“Ballycastle” is a series of watercolor monotypes I made during the month of May while I was an artist-in-residence at the Ballinglen Foundation in Ballycastle, County Mayo, Ireland. Place and process inspired the work. Process first, in this case. I brought watercolor paints with me thinking I’d do a bit of watercolor painting in the landscape. Unexpectedly, I had the opportunity to learn the process of making watercolor monotypes and I had access to an etching press. That was all it took to get me going. I worked intensively for days making prints—46 in all. By the time I started the series, I was midway through my month-long residency. I’d spent a lot of time exploring my surroundings and I’d done a lot of drawing. My mind was steeped in the colors and geometry of the Irish landscape; I could both see and feel the place.

I am reading “The Hockney Interviews” by Hans Ulrich Olberst. He writes, “Landscape has many valences within Hockney's practice.” I had to look up the definition of “valence” to understand it in this context. I think about covalent bonding in oil paints and the notions of attraction and attachment. AI tells me, “valence describes the power of a concept to combine with or attract other ideas, emotions, perspectives.” In other words—Association? Interpretation?