Food as Thought, relief with found objects
My thoughts result in my print ideas, and are directed by things I see, find, and experience, and are the subject of my work. They don’t reflect on political, social, moral, or historical issues, but are a product of random – not precise, varied – not compartmentalized, original – not obvious, mind-work. They are often inspired by the unexpected.
Anyone who says you can’t see a thought,
simply doesn’t know art.
-Wynetka Ann Reynolds
I am a printmaker and I work almost entirely with relief methods. I typically start with a traditional substrate, but am easily moved to experiment with unusual physically textured surfaces. Any durable physically textured surface has the potential to become a worthy surface for a print idea…a thought.
I work everything by hand and avoid using digital devices. What some observers identify in my work as flaws, are simply a reflection of an honest attempt to reveal my intentions.
No less than seventy-five percent of the time I spend on making a print is dedicated to thinking and planning. It is not uncommon for me to lie awake for hours at night, searching to find a solution to further one of my ideas. I can make good designs. I spent most of my professional life encouraging my students to do just that. What inspires me now is what makes a design meaningful. What I make now has to stand above design, or a simple solution. It has to be a product that reveals what I demand of my art…that it be of a deep and truly original thought.
