Still working in my old studio in the Mojave.
At the Zoo
June 4, 2025
At the Zoo
2025. Acrylic gel press monoprint. 3/3 V.E. 8 x 10 in.
Something tells me it’s all happening
At the Zoo…
As this edition of rustic gel press monoprints developed last winter, I found myself humming the few lines of Simon & Garfunkel that I could still remember:
The monkeys stand for honesty
Giraffes are insincere
And the elephants are kindly, but they’re dumb
Orangutans are skeptical
Of changes in their cages
And the zookeeper is very fond of rum…
Nothing serious about these prints, just fun. I used ink and Posca pens as well as acrylic paint, in some cases adding more ink and Posca after pulling the print, if I felt it needed it.
Here’s another one that got a full 1/4-inch out of registration, but I like it anyway so it stays in the set!
At the Zoo
2025. Acrylic gel press monoprint. 1/3 V.E. 8 x 10 in.
The smudginess was deliberate. I’d originally worked up the design on random discard prints on cheap paper which were also smudgy, and I liked the effect. So I reproduced it here. Standards are very elastic at Magicgroove Studio!
The Zoo at Night
2025. Acrylic gel press monoprint. 2/3 V.E. 8 x 10 in.
When I was so very much younger, a student still, friends and I sneaked into the San Francisco Zoo at night. Yes, donned dark clothes, climbed over the exit turnstyle, and we were in!
What a magical place the zoo was at night! I’m not really a zoo person, but at night it was a different world. At night, it belonged to the animals. It was quiet and dark but resonant with life, and the animals were about their own business, not human business. And they were actually interested in watching us, instead of the other way around!
A single small building glowed dimly, but we avoided that and our eyes grew accustomed to the darkness. We could hear the calm, even breaths of the giraffes as they followed us curiously along the fence, and the silky ripple as a hippo slid into his pool.
After a couple hours of stealthy roaming in the friendly dark, we climbed back over the turnstyle and were done. I’ve never wanted to be at a zoo in the daytime since.
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