About

Growing up, my ambition as a child was to illustrate children's books, or do the cover of the New Yorker Magazine! I was always drawn to the whimsey of flat patterns and animals.  I drew with rapidograph pens, coloring in with watercolors.

In college, I was introduced to printmaking, primarily intaglio. 
It was the intimacy, the texture, the flatness, I enjoyed.

I could work on a small plate, or multiple plates with colors, and when ready to print, there was always an element of surprise. 

Unlike painting, I had to wait through the inking of the plate, the soaking of paper, and running it through the press, to see what I got.

After college, I spent a quarter in Mexico studying silkscreening and batik.  Batik also held the element of surprise. Between dying the cloth, and applying the wax to resist the dye, the process would be a continual building up of layers of colors. A lot of the process was working in negative space and only after removing all the wax, there was again that element of surprise, seeing what I got.

For over thirty years, I have sent out Christmas cards using linoleum print to chronicle my year.

Now, I am back to the small intimate pieces of tile, using as my subjects, my dog, cats, pets of friends, birds, chickens, guinea hens, goats, llamas, and horses in the neighborhood. 

I work in black and white as well as color, often creating a collage background specifically designed for the individual piece. The results are infinitely varied and never boring.

All images © Maggie Kendis     Site Map