Funny how sometimes when you quiet down as an artist, take a break from art and take some deep breaths BiG ideas begin to speak deeply to you. Starting with a faint whisper, then slowly growing in volume until you just can’t ignore them anymore. I’ve just had that experience…so profound was the realization that I’ve been moving at a snails pace into a new direction with my art, that I just had to write it down.
Printmaking has alway held my interest in mark making, even as a child, I have always loved the process of applying paint on objects and printing them into various substates. Fabrics of all types, papers, leather and wood to mention a few have captured my images since I was 12 years old and I continue to be drawn to the processes even now in my 70’s.
The Big Ideas now are coming a little faster and the images and processes I have learned over the years, such as Collagraphs, Multi-Plate Mono Printing, Woodblock, Etching and Serigraphs are my part of my printmaking repertoire used as my creative voice to tell my allegories. . Mixing my inks from natural dry pigments with walnut oil adds to the layers of history I am most attracted to. Collaging these various techniques expands the depth of the work and mixes up the approach, keeping me fascinated with the work.
Now the artwork is more abstract, layering old and new images to express myself in less constrained ways. Letting the work evolve as it will and keeping the self judgement and doubt quiet for now and allowing the whisper of ideas to grow to a crescendo.
So I as I head to my beloved France for my yearly sabbatical, I will pack my sketch book and explore my ideas with a wonderful new perspective.