BUILD
My prints have moved out of the confines of frames and now exist as three-dimensional wall sculptures. The viewer can engage and experience each sculpture from multiple perspectives based on their vantage point and proximity to the work. Just as a builder requires specific materials and tools in order to construct a house, I use paper to construct my sculptures. Paper is more than a substrate for absorbing the ink of my prints. Paper is a building material held together with glue rather than nails.
My art practice is process oriented. I typically begin by building a grided, sculptural armature, constructed out of multiple, hand-made box structures. The grid supports the design as well as the structural integrity of each piece. The layering of Japanese paper with permanent archival varnish adds to the sculptural surface. This process evolves intuitively with an effort to keep the structure as square as possible, knowing it will never be perfectly square. Paper is pliable. It can bend especially when moist with glue. I don’t view this as a limitation but rather a challenge. Similarly, as a printmaker when working in tandem with a printing press it is necessary to surrender some control over the final outcome of a print to the press.
Architectural influences play a major role in these works. My goal with this exhibition was to create abstract, archetypal structures and to laminate them with printmaking imagery. The imagery although personally symbolic for me is hopefully of a universal nature capable of resonating with each viewer. Each piece demanded its own printmaking imagery and specific use of color. Once permanently adhered the prints work together with the building-like structures to tell stories and to slowly evoke memories of buildings and the rooms within them.