Margo Ogden
Artist, Printmaker
Brooklyn, NY
@margo.ogden
“My Conrad Monotype Press is a real pleasure to use. In order to make my multilayered prints the paper and plate have go under the rollers many times before a print is completed. This press is geared so well that creating a print, even a large, is quite easy. The hand wheel turns easily, and my prints are evenly inked. The press works equally as well for large or small plates, embossed images, and collagraphs.”
– Marguerite Ogden,
Artist/ Printmaker
Bio
Ogden was raised in the Boston area, and earned a BFA in painting from Boston University. She moved to Maine in the early ‘70s, eventually becoming a founding member of the craft cooperative Praxis in Freeport Maine.
Formally trained as a painter but using the press as tool of choice, she has produced monotypes—also known as the painterly print—for the past 25 years. As a printmaker her work explores the myriad possibilities of expression and interpretation informed by her lived experience.
During her time as a full-time arts educator for 26 years Ogden continued to draw, paint and print, exploring the boundaries of her creative expression. In 1993 she enrolled in New York University’s Venice Masters program. This fruitful period over two summers in Italy was the turning point that influenced her color palette and distinctive aesthetic to this day.
Encompassing her time in Europe, two stints at the Haystack Mountain Craft School also contributed to her development through further study of painting, bookmaking, and monotype printing. Ogden continues to be informed, challenged and rewarded by the evocative work she has been refining for the past two decades.
Now a resident of Brooklyn, New York, with her own print studio, she has taken on a new challenge to create monotypes surrounded by the city and all it has to offer.
Artist Statement
Building on my background in painting and textile arts, I have been making monotypes for the last fifteen years. My approach to printmaking has always been traditional and painterly.
I combine the spontaneity of painting with the effects and surprises only printmaking allows. Each piece is created through multiple passes through a press. My original interest in building shapes and depth with veils of color has progressed to exploring texture and repetition. To add texture to my prints, I work with collagraphs, hand painting, printing on collaged paper, and variations of chine-collé.
In my most recent work, I am printing man-made, found objects that add moire patterns and a pixelated effect. Paradoxically this work speaks to my history as a textile artist and our computer driven world.
Prints
“Found”
– 36″ x 30″
– Monotype print
– Printed on a Conrad Monotype Press 48 x 72
– Brooklyn, NY
“Jupiter“
– 30″ x 22″
– Monotype print
– Printed on a Conrad Monotype Press 48 x 72
– Brooklyn, NY
“Rain on Moss”
– 30″ x 22″
– Monotype print
– Printed on a Conrad Monotype Press 48 x 72
– Brooklyn, NY
“Reflection”
– 30″ x 22″
– Monotype print
– Printed on a Conrad Monotype Press 48 x 72
– Brooklyn, NY
“Street Life II”
– 42″ x 35″
– Monotype print
– Printed on a Conrad Monotype Press 48 x 72
– Brooklyn, NY
“The Wave“
– 36″ x 30″
– Monotype print
– Printed on a Conrad Monotype Press 48 x 72
– Brooklyn, NY
