Monotypes   Having come from a printmaking background and spending 10 year of my life doing etchings and lithographs, I never used to like, almost hated monotypes. In fact, I always discriminated against monotype as a technique of amateurs and painters. I was in the United States having a show in Palo Alto. I was walking to my gallery in the morning before the show and my dealer asked me, "did you have dinner at a Chinese Restaurant last night with 2 friends from Stanford? This question scared the shit out of me. There was no malice involved as much as I remembered. My dealer replied, "don't worry." "Sitting near you was Paula Kirkeby who has a big press designed for making monotypes. She heard part of your conversation with your friends and understands that you are an artists, a printmaker, and Russian. She is waiting to talk to you; her gallery is a 5 minute walk from here." I was in shock again, because just the previous day, I had been talking to my friends and was "tired from painting and missing printing." I had asked, "do you know anybody to send a press to and do some printing projects with?"

I walked to Smith Anderson Gallery and Paula was waiting for me. Like in a fairy tale, she offered me 5 days with a monotype project on her press. It was the beginning of a big love, almost obsession with monotypes. Part of this chemistry was using incredible machines, an etching press and the best printmaking French handmade paper. Some of the big pieces were 40 x 60 large and 1500 grams thick. Maybe after that I finalized my decision to stay in the United States. German water soluble crayons, second with mixture of litho and etching ink, splashes of turpentine and flash-oil, alcohol (technical) silk-screen poetry on the top.. fascinating. Almost black and white images with touches of the color - like opening an old book with fading reproductions - monotype gives me quality impossible for any other technique and enables me to create a big number of artworks even after a few years are staying around my studio. I always enjoying looking, touching, and bringing back those emotions which were co-dated to paper during their creation.