Amanda McCavour "Poppies" (detail)

Contemporary Paper Marbling with Jones Violet

Every time I tell someone I do paper marbling they’re like “But how do you DO it???” Honestly it’s so simple—you float paint on water thickened with seaweed extract and comb it into patterns. Not to say it’s easy. It’s actually incredibly annoying and the materials are all really expensive, perishable, and poisonous, and I’ve burned my fingertips with potassium hydroxide too many times. But oh honey, it’s so fun!

Jones Violet, Brand New Fur Coat!, 2021. Acrylic and watercolor, paper marbling, 18 x 24 in. Photo by the artist.

I learned paper marbling as a 19-year-old in a retirement community in Florida. My mentor was Steve Pittelkow, a grumpy man I met in college who took me on as an apprentice. I would marble 6–8 hours a day, until I saw patterns when I closed my eyes. We would take lunch breaks at the local retirement potluck, where they served grape salad (green grapes with cream cheese and brown sugar—it looked like eyeballs floating in cream). Sometimes in the mornings I’d play pickleball with the retirees. In the evenings I biked on flat Florida streets to the beach and I’d stare up at the clouds and see marbled patterns—nonpareil, french curl, feathered chevron.

Jones Violet, Eye Soup, 2018. Scan of acrylic paper marbling, digitally manipulated. Photo by the artist.

Being a trans paper marbler is a trip. I feel like I’m the only one, though I suppose there’s no way to know for sure. I started taking estrogen right when I got more serious with my art, and it’s really interesting to see how my art has changed since then. It’s gotten a lot bolder, a lot brighter. Sometimes I feel like the paper marbling world is stuck in the past—the same methods and pigments and styles passed down through centuries. From my experience, so much of the marbling world is older white men and women (but mostly men) trying to recreate antique papers. I really love that my papers look nothing like anything from the past. They’re queer in a literal sense, bright and bold and obnoxious.

Jones Violet, Lilypads, 2021. Acrylic and watercolor, paper marbling, 18 x 24 in. Photo by the artist.

Here’s some rules I broke:

  • Don’t mix watercolor and acrylic paints. Well guess what, I did it and I’m never going back! You get all the benefits of watercolor marbling (ability to adjust chroma separate from spread-ability of paint on a surface, that ethereal transparency and grainy-ness of watercolor) mixed with the ease and durability of acrylics. Why did so many people tell me not to do this??
  • Don’t try to prolong the life of your marbling size, it’s seaweed extract and it’s gonna spoil within a few days. This one took me years to figure out—I read in some book from the early 1900s that some marbler used to add formaldehyde to his marbling goo and it kept it from going bad…and probably gave him nose cancer. But modern formaldehyde-releasing preservatives do the same thing while keeping me cancer-free!
  • Don’t use paper besides white or black cotton paper. Recently I’ve started experimenting with luster photo paper for paper marbling and it’s amazing. The paper itself shines through in little gaps through the pattern and the supernatural flatness of photo paper means the art has a palpable texture, little ridges of patterns you can trace with your fingers.
  • And more!

Jones Violet, Lava, 2019. Acrylic, paper marbling, 18 x 24 in. Photo by the artist.

There’s so much emphasis in paper marbling on production, on making editions of similar-looking papers to be cut up and bound into books. That’s great and all but really undersells the ability of paper marbling to be its own art. Lately I’ve been really into writing loud, angsty messages on my papers in liquid latex. I really like the idea that my art is screaming at you from on the wall, combining these bright swirling patterns with abrasive messages like YOU’RE A BAD ALLY! Recently my uncle told me that he had to stop following me because my art was making him uncomfortable. I felt so validated.

Jones Violet, You’re a bad ally!, 2021. Acrylic, paper marbling, 18 x 24 in. Photo by the artist.

Me and my mentor don’t talk anymore. Sometimes I reach out but we’re not close like we used to be. I think our styles are just too different. And besides I feel too excited by the direction my own art is taking to really care that much. I want to keep writing weird shit, making papers that yell at people from across the room. And maybe I’ll make a few that say nice things too. You never know.

Jones Violet, Cotton Candy, 2021. Acrylic and watercolor, paper marbling, 18 x 24 in. Photo by the artist.

–Jones Violet is a social worker, comedian, and paper marbler living in Portland, OR. She likes to tend to her garden and play moody piano. Her Instagram is @marble.mistress, where she also sells her work.

Jones Violet, Peacock with Ripples, 2018. Scan of acrylic, paper marbling, digitally manipulated. Photo by the artist.

6 Comments

  • Noelle McGuire says

    October 8, 2021 at 6:45 am

    One of the things I've always loved about old books are the marble pages but girl you have jumped out of the covers ! Noelle

  • Ronna Klionsky says

    October 8, 2021 at 7:27 am

    Heck Yeah!

  • MD Lancaster says

    October 8, 2021 at 8:15 pm

    Dear MS. Violet, I love your work. Marbling clearly needed a shake-up. I am especially dazzled by the 3-d effects in "Lava" and "Peacock with Ripples." Would you mind telling me, when you say you "mix watercolor with acrylic paints," do you mean that you float the two separate paints together, or do you mean you mix the paints together first, and then float the resulting mix? Or do you mean you float and transfer each paint sequentially (probably not the last; I figured the rule has to do with problems if the different pigment carriers mix). I would really like to understand what I am seeing in "Cotton Candy." Thank you, MaggieD

  • Nancy Eastman says

    October 9, 2021 at 9:53 am

    I like the way you describe the technique. I have used marbled paper in my collage work with stitching as a background. Very difficult to find someone doing now with great marbling. Keep it up

  • Maggie Weiss says

    October 10, 2021 at 8:44 am

    Hi there! Your work is gorgeous! I'd love to learn if you're available for teaching at our local Needlearts guild outside of Chicago either in May 2022 or for the following program year. We would love to have you in person and to also find out if you teach virtually. ( If the pandemic makes continues to make in- person meetings an issue. I appreciate any info you can provide. I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks very much. Maggie Weiss, Evanston, IL 847-571-1385

  • Anneke Herrold says

    October 15, 2021 at 4:29 am

    Love your work, Jones, and your writing style is great!

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