Retrospective
Work
Relief
prints: linocut, woodblock
These
pieces are part of a series of work exploring family secrets…unearthing
long-hidden feelings and perceptions and putting them into
visual perspective – sometimes recording, sometimes
interpreting, sometimes understanding, but always being aware
of the power and subjectivity of history.
For some time I
have sketched wildflowers and creatures. In the winter, I
go into the studio and commit them to prints on paper, not
as mere illustrations, but as a way to study and preserve
them.
The ubiquitous
resin chair has since been replaced, but it accommodated many
mornings of sketching on the deck.
Etchings
and Lithographs:
Travel,
children’s drawings, tributes to friends…
This series, a
family narrative, has been ongoing for several years. It began
when I sat quietly during a conversation between my father
and his sister, at which time they revealed details about
their father’s life and death that I had never before
heard. The notion of secrets as ‘omission’ rather
than ‘commission’ established a pattern in which
I had to take responsibility for asking questions and unearthing
the secrets.
While visiting
family in the Netherlands, we often walked through small towns
with church towers rising above tiled or thatched rooftops.
The narrow facades and angled roofs in towns as well as scudding
clouds above the North Sea were the basis for a series of
etchings and lithographs.
Monotypes
and Monoprints:
Black birds
have been a recurring motif in my work. Often, they have been
a metaphor for thoughts or feelings I wished to express symbolically.
Intelligence, mischief, even the more despairing aspects they
embody have often informed my work.
On a rainy, late
afternoon, I watched as first one bird, then several, and
finally a multitude perched on the overhead wires. They swooped,
the jostled, they landed, careful not to look at one another,
they rose and circled, they perched again. Against the grey
sky, they were black silhouettes.
The Legacies series
reflects my concern about so much apparent indifference to
what we are leaving for future generations. These pieces are
characterized by systems unable to sustain life, shadows,
roiled waters, disturbance and intrusion and misaligned boundaries.
These pieces respond
to a ‘still’ life – those moments of absorption
when studying a subject and determining how best to portray
it, as well as those moments in my life when I allow myself
to be still and reflective.
Book Pages:
Synoptic: The Ties That Bind: Hail Mary Hail Mama
When Mama decides
to convert to a fish-on-Fridays Catholic, will Daddy cease
to be a lapsed Catholic and return to the church he left in
adolescence?
When Father Grineau
prays for the conversion of the unrepentant children of
the
marriage, how can he know that prayers are being said for
him to find a nice woman and get married?
Will the prayers
of an innocent child cause turmoil in the life of the handsome
French Canadian priest, causing him to eschew the church?
This first novel
explores the fear a child experiences when prayers seemingly
are answered with unexpected consequences. Follow the musings
and final revelations of our young protagonist as she finally
comes to realize how little effect she has on the complexities
of a life.
Assemblages/Constructions:
Most of my
assemblages and constructions combine prints and calligraphy
with mixed media, but some are narratives created from found
objects.
Three layers of
relics reconstruct a family history.
Residency
Prints:
As a teaching
artist, I cut a new block to demonstrate technique for students
when I do a printmaking residency. I now have rather a large
assortment of “residency prints.”
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