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Figurative/Narrative: Memories of A Presence Billy Colbert: The process I use to create my work is layer of screen prints on photography paper. In the works, each color is a differnt silk screen. The pieces are first created on the photography paper, then that paper is dry-mounted onto aluminum. Michael Janis: The delicate nature of working with glass powder allows changes the image being creating with the slightest tap. The glass powder is sifted onto glass sheets, worked with delicate scrapers and picks to create the imagery by scraping and scratching the sifted black glass dust. When Michael feels the artwork is finished, he then carries the glass panel to an electric kiln and fused the glass panels at temperatures up to 1600°F. Paul Andrew Wandless: Ceramic processes combined with printmaking techniques take full advantage of the potential for both mediums. My visual vocabulary has no bounds as a result and allows for more aesthetically sophisticated compositions and narratives. The clay prints have images and color layered in a way unique to this hybrid approach combining mediums and materials. The prints and sculptures are narratives full of color, symbols, text, icons, graphics, illustrations and reoccurring characters. Some clay prints are one of a kind and others part of a suite, but all tell stories or share insights with the viewer. Working sculpturally, the figure serves as a point of departure and is utilized as a tablet or canvass for images, symbols and text to be incorporated creating the narrative or dialogue. Working this way allows me to apply a metaphorical face to personal concerns, beliefs, fears, ideologies and philosophies. Particular materials and images are selected for the emotional, psychological, symbolic or iconic connotations they inherently posses. Surface, texture and color reflect mood and visually project the emotion of a piece. My use of multiple layers of color and imagery reflect the multiple layering of ideas and thoughts invested in a work and also produce personally coded content. Ultimately, though, my work is meant to engage and inform the viewer aesthetically and intellectually while telling my side of the story. I want to reveal how I see the world through my personal experiences, insights and philosophy. I hope to also communicate how I fit into the larger conversation of life and art through the voice of my work.
Immersed in the Natural World Elizabeth Burger Artist’s Statement Glimpses of animals, camouflaged by the trees and brush, observing their trails, nests and migrations, insect casings, ice storms and many unexpected events on the land are resources for my work. These are translated into forms that reflect my consuming interest in how we relate to our natural world and the relationship between human and animal behavior. Tai Hwa Goh Artist’s Statement The body not only acts as a container of my soul but also as a vessel that leads my mind and thoughts into various investigations. My body is both outward and inward, and it is also a widely open “site.” I’ve presented sceneries of the imagination regarding the extensive site based upon personal and bodily experiences. Most of my works are produced by layering of prints on thin Korean paper, "Soon-ji.” With multiple production processes like aquatint and silkscreen, the quality and weight of paper tell about tissue-like layers and physiological process of our body but also reflect accumulation of our memories and experiences. I iron sheets of bees wax on Korean paper to create thin layers of waxed paper. Then I mount the waxed print on wood panels. The layers of delicately waxed papers obstruct and bury the image underneath, and at the same time transmit the echo of the image. The waxed papers mimic the translucent, impenetrable, and vulnerable of body (i.e. skin) but at the same time recoverable and rather strong selfness. I always think the process of making art is the effort to search my identity, and my art work is the diary recording my experiences. Every moment of physical experience in my life motivate me to focus on inside voice of my body. These layers of experience and exploration in the landscape of my body are a result of the efforts to search my identity. Novie Trump Artist’s Statement One of the central archetypal symbols used throughout this body of work is the egg. Eggs have been a symbol of rebirth and renewal for thousands of years in both pagan and Christian mythology. The egg figures prominently in this body of work as a symbol of hope and possibility amidst death and destruction: a nest of charred bones cradles a real egg, an egg is held within a turtle shell serving as reliquary, a newly born bird emerges from shards of eggshells. Another important symbol is the large bowl form, which was inspired by large shallow stone basins that are found in Celtic barrows. Ancient Celts would fill the bowls with the bones and ashes of their dead throughout the year. On the solstice they would ceremonially usher the souls of their dead to the otherworld as light would flood the usually dark chambers. They would then bury the ashes and bones and begin the year anew. The installation piece, Temple of the Phoenix (tentative title), is meant to evoke a sacred place of ritual. A ring of pillars inspired by ancient temples and burned trees encircles a nest of blackened bones, which holds a luminous ivory egg. A fierce bird perched on one of the pillars watches over the egg, which waits to be born. In this piece, iconic images of death are deliberately juxtaposed with images of birth to convey the inevitable cycle of life. These intertwined relationships of light and dark, loss and hope, death and rebirth are explored in these works to express such universal human experiences as love, fear, despair, courage and transformation. |