Abbie Hendrickson, mixed media monoprint
May 25, 2007 – June 29, 2007
Printmaking is an art form that has evolved over five centuries. Tradition carries printmaking forward, but artists will always be developing new ways of mark-making, toward personal expression. Innovative Processes showcases the work of three artists, Constance Jacobson, Abbey Hendrickson, and Joyce Silverstone, who are pushing the medium in different directions through experimentation and exploration.
According to Constance Jacobson, her pieces, from the series Greymatter , grew from an investigation into “ways of creating images that looked like they belonged to the microbial world, but have no basis in real science.” She uses powdered graphite and oil as the medium for its simplicity, fluidity, and sensitivity. She then manipulates this non-traditional ink using eyedroppers, rollers, brushes.
Abbey Hendrickson’s interests in layered images and bookmaking structures have been fostered by her involvement with printmaking. Unlike a traditional printmaker, she creates prints with the intention of altering each one separately, which allows her to consider a broader range of possible relationships. She finds using unconventional media such as tea, gesso, and found materials along with traditional printmaking processes easily lends itself to the creation of books and zines.
Joyce Silverstone prints onto the surface of clayboard panels with layers of ink run through the press, focusing on the plate and what remains of the images over time. The processes of printmaking- stenciling, rolling, carving, transfer drawing- all contribute to building the images that emerge on the panels. When the inks dry on the panels, she continues working on the content of the image by sanding off some layers, or adding more directly by rolling over the layers, or transfer drawing into the surface again.