Objection Print

Ohio, USAI am a printmaker working primarily with collagraphs and etchings.Beauty. Meditative thought. Nuance. These are vital nourishment for the inner me and what my collagraphs and etchings are about. The prints I present here are not of a fast food, instant gratification style. Rather, they are grounded in deliberation and offer complex flavors with soul-sustaining sustenance to all who taste. My prints are meant to give the viewer pause, not through shocking images, but simply interesting ones with which the mind enjoys playing and savoring.ABSTRACTIONMy prints are abstract pieces. I find that making something from nothing or almost nothing can be difficult mental work. Or it can be intuitively easy. It is also intriguing, very freeing, great fun and rewarding.Working abstractly frees up color and image choice a great deal for experimentation. It fosters open-mindedness and looking at things from new perspectives for both myself and the viewer. With judicious color overlays and thoughtful design I can create unique worlds, at once gigantic and microscopic in size depending on ones viewpoint. Or I can create a new identity for something as simple as an icicle, for example, by infusing it with texture and color foreign to its usual appearance.NEW WAYSAlongside experimentation with color, design and imagery is my experimentation with materials used in constructing collagraph plates. An expanded, high-density PVC plastic sheet, manufactured in Germany as Komatex and in the U.S. as Sintra, has replaced chipboard as my base material of choice. Slightly more rigid than chipboard, this plastic cuts easily and is lightweight. This material allows me to do more intricate shaping of non-rectangular plates, as well as facilitating smoother linear and textural carving into the plate surface.CONTRIBUTORSCollage material which I glue to the plate is primarily paper, cardboard and fabric. Much is given to me by people interested in my work. This is something I found quite surprising at first and quite rewarding. Are they responding to a taste of insight or delight or honesty that they find in my work? Whatever the motivation, I look at their bags of fabric swatches and books of wallpaper samples as nourishing contributions for the soul of our culture. Together with other artists like myself, they help fulfill a need for beauty that is vital to us all.