Mike Sonnichsen

Plate Work, from three 4”x 4” square, etched and aquatinted, then relief inked plates, simultaneously represents my oldest and newest work. I created these plates while an architecture student and learned to print them in a very unorthodox manner (relief rolled and printed face down on the paper and press bed). While challenging to print well, I may never exhaust the systematic color and pattern potentials they hold. The distinctive physical look of these prints and compositions with 4, 9, or 16 plate squares share an affinity with quilting, mathematical tiling, Op art, mandala forms, and textiles. The 1:4 geometry built into the plates and use of rotational symmetry offer myriad visual effects. While avoiding explicit reference to tantric art, mandalas as symbolic reiteration of the structure of the universe, or sacred geometry, I acknowledge that my work shares much with those traditions. I have been printing this series in earnest since 2008; each piece is unique (not editioned) and measures 8" x 8" on 15" square paper.

The pieces in the Dish Detergent Bottle series are color photograms, camera-less images created in a traditional darkroom. These use photosensitive paper to reveal detailed, silhouetted images of familiar objects with colors and luminosity both unexpected yet recognizable. The nature of the materials used creates the complement of the original dish soap color as well as lens-like distortions of light. Not didactic, there are still numerous questions implicit in the work, regarding the design, allure, and life cycle of plastics in our world, unconscious references to “women’s work”, and what inherent or composite orders may be revealed. Given the material nature of the source pieces, the uncanny resultant images, and the viewer, a moment of disorienting visual wonder is often followed with a literal revision of what may have been previously overlooked.

The Binary Plate Work series derives from another 4" x 4" plate, yet instead of aquatint tone, this plate was deep etched. When relief rolled, it prints only the high, unetched surfaces and blank or open spaces. The more cleanly delineated sections of this plate encourage varied registration and compositional ideas.

I bring a printmaker’s sensibilities to my darkroom explorations, perhaps seen most clearly in the “Katagami” and “Circuits” series photograms. Katagami are Japanese textile dye stencils, usually hand-cut paper treated with persimmon juice for durability. I placed these light blocking sheets on photosensitive paper and essentially “printed” with 4 hues of colored light. The flipping and rotation of each sheet reflects a fundamental yet beguiling mathematical symmetry and begins to reveal an underlying composite order. As color printing in this manner is done in total darkness (no safelight), my inability to consistently align the sheet is seen at the edges of the sheets, hinting at the process. By way of these “constructs of making” and rules reflecting the essence of the medium, I developed approaches that sought to reveal otherwise hidden patterns through analog photographic manipulation.

While I initially used the stencil form seen here specifically for moiré effects, I also came to enjoy how these pieces demonstrate apparent color mixing through fields of lines and layers of opaque screenprint ink. The regular, “square” pieces follow a rotational but shifting 4- way symmetry, while the “tests” explore the generation of more dramatic moiré forms.

The Circuits series photograms are similar to the Katagami works; both are darkroom experiments based on the rotation and flipping symmetries of a sheet, and exposure or "printing" via 4 hues of colored light. The sheets in this case were films used in the production of printed circuit boards for what was, ironically, a state-of-the-art scanner in its time. The discovery of the text reading, "Spectral Engine" seems especially apt.

Letterpress print work with Lego flat tiles, suits my creative methodologies as it highlights pattern and symmetry, constructs of play, and chance operations. I have developed a personalized approach to Lego work in the last 3 years, and while the scale of traditional letterpress production is somewhat limited, I have started to collage sectional and tile elements into larger composite works. The precise and modular nature of this type of printing offers countless combinatory possibilities, a near overload of visual-systemic complexity, and a familiarity or accessibility through objects designed for play.

The Mouthwash Bottle series is the close visual cousin of the Dish Detergent Bottle works. The faceted forms seen in many of these bottles stand in contrast to the rounded detergent bottles and evoke mineral or gem-like qualities through colors and forms.

The original print images exist at the 1:1 size of the bottles themselves (in an 18” x 12” field) but can be digitally reproduced up to 44” x 30” with tremendous fidelity.

A “Vandal Ideas Project” grant teamed University of Idaho visual artists with faculty from the sciences, in my case with mathematics professor Jennifer Johnson-Leung. Translating data points of the hyperelliptic curves used in her research to a printable scale involved challenges, but the introduction of digital noise artifacts to symmetrically patterned plots altered and enriched the digital/analog conversion. Using rotational symmetries, UV-reactive inks on black paper, and sculptural blacklight enclosures for display, I created glowing visual effects similar to blacklight posters and to my photogram work.

When the printing of "plate works" goes well, I will often attempt larger composite forms. The 12 x 12  series creates 2 nodes that vie for focus (and are subtitled "Dyadic"), while the 16 x 16 prints are more quilt-like, owing to a center with rotationally symmetrical surrounding areas. The 16 x 16 prints require 48 passes of the individual inked plates through the press.

These pieces are directly light-driven and carry a spatial/sculptural presence. The plastic materials used have been drawn out of their usual context and invite a re-evaluation of their respective form families.

The Sparky series photograms were created by placing toy friction/sparking guns against color photo paper and triggering the spark wheel inside each gun. The color burst is the complementary color of the plastic and the focused yet explosive nature of the light source prints faint clues to the forms of the guns themselves.

This suite of photograms explored the arrangements of 1 pint green plastic berry baskets on 20” x 24” photo paper. Slight variations of greens and designs make up each block of 12. A dimensional quality arises from height of the forms when flattened onto the 2-D photographic image.