Before Iceland: Multiple Plate Drypoint Monotypes
October 3 - 18, 2015
Reception
Thursday October 8, 5-7 p.m.
Islensk Grafik http://islenskgrafik.is/
The Icelandic Printmakers Association Gallery
Reykjavik, Iceland
Image -
OVS #10, 2015, 8 x 6 in, drypoint chine-collé
Click here to see the rest of the work:
Continuing my Octagon Vibration Series, these new printed works range in image size from 8 x 6 to 10 x 8 inches and most of them utilize chine-collé.
I work primarily in painting and drawing. In 1995 as an extension of my drawing I did a large body of small drypoint monotypes which were shown at Barry Whistler Gallery. In 2012 I resumed both monotype and drypoint as an extension of my painting and drawing investigation, many of which included collage, stencils and embossing. Those prints begat the Octagon Vibration Series of large drawings first shown in 2014's Parallel Process at Barry Whistler Gallery, Dallas. While none of those earlier prints were shown, a few off shoots of those works continued and culminated in these prints to be shown in 2015.
The 35 works in the exhibition utilize 33 copper plates. These plates were interchanged, mingled, and redrawn---often three to six plates used in one print---with the addition of chine-collé ink drawings. Some of the plates have "erased pentimenti" imagery from the 1996 plates. I like to imagine a copper sketchbook. I tend to think of printmaking as another way to draw rather than "making a print" per say. The tools of printmaking give my inclination to draw new tensions to push against, and going back and forth between mediums invigorates the questions I ask in my work.
My exhibit in Iceland was first scheduled in 2013 for 2014, cancelled, then rescheduled to 2015. Unrelated at first, I was honored this year to be selected for the Otis and Dozier Travel Grant to Iceland---then my exhibit was confirmed and rescheduled!
Going back to 2012, the prints and large drawings were influenced by my travels, hiking and horseback riding in Northern New Mexico. I've also explored the Atlantic/ East coast, visiting places important to Thoreau, Whitman and the painter Marsden Hartley. I see traveling to Iceland as a continuation of this enrichment for visualizing energies and spaces in my paintings, drawings and prints.
