When I was too young to understand such technological marvels, perhaps five or six years old, my father took me to the newspaper printing press of The Commercial Appeal to drop off advertising layouts and copy for the morning paper. I was spellbound by the noise of the press, the speed, the smell of ink. To this day I'm convinced I was early on imprinted with love for printing, with ink running through my veins.

 As an artist I've worked in many different fine art printmaking media, but never used one for a children's book until I decided to use monoprints for two of my recent picture books, "Here Comes the Night" and "My Preschool." I wanted the illustrations to have to soft yet vibrant effect that this technique offers.

Monoprinting consists of making a painting on plexiglass, which is then offset onto paper using a press or not. Unlike woodcut, linoleum cuts, serigraph, intaglio, there is no edition, no multiple copies. A monotype results in one unique print, and for this reason is more akin to painting than other forms of printmaking. Degas was a great innovator in this medium, and I kept my eye fixed on his beautiful monotypes.

One problem with traditional printmaking is that the inks used are often both flammable and toxic. Since I work in my home, I was concerned about using these inks. I decided to experiment with Akua-Kolor non-toxic inks. Susan Rostow, the printmaker who invented this product when she was expecting a child was a great help when I sent SOS's to her, even though she was up in Vermont teaching workshops. Thanks to her, I was able to make the inks dry in the typically hot and humid Connecticut summer.

I didn't use a press, but instead a traditional Japanese baren used in Japanese woodcuts. With a baren you rub the back of the print, protecting the paper with a layer of a special Japanese paper made just for that purpose. The resulting presssure, instead of being constant as it would be with a press, changes as the artiust wishes. I liked the intimacy of the baren in my hand, its unique way of letting me control the pressure in all areas of the print.

For "Here Comes the Night" I used a pale blue handmade Italian paper. It gave me a head start on summoning up the mysterious shadows of oncoming night. For "My Preschool" I wanted a brighter, stronger palette, so used white Japanese rice paper. Both papers worked as I'd hoped they would, yet gave quite different qualities to the artwork in each book.

Monotype is a very labor-intensive medium but one that brings a special poetry to the artwork.