Blue

A show of woodcuts and drawings from April-May 2021 at Froelick Gallery

The natural environment around where I live has been a refuge for my mind, particularly over this past year. I am continuously surprised and awakened by the morning light reflecting on the snow in winter, the pale blues of dusk, the scraggly rosehips and ponderosa pines along the riverbank at sundown, and the depth of cool greens and blues in my garden even during the summer heat. Creating this body of work gave me both a quiet meditative practice and a way for me to be curious. The drawing process and especially the carving process were slow and repetitive, allowing me to explore in the way that a meditation frees one from the necessary thoughts of daily needs to dig deeper into existential questions. I draw plants because they are how I connect to a sense of place. Plants are like fingerprints for an area- a result of the unique combination of weather, geology, and human intervention. My home on the east side of the Cascade mountains is very much defined by its plants, geology and weather.
My interest in blue connects to many forms of blue that appear culturally and naturally. Indigo, verdigris, Prussian blue all have depths and variations in ink and nature that I find insatiable. I connect to the color blue on an emotional level. To prepare for drawing, I coat Japanese kozo and mitsumata papers with sizing and pigment to build up a surface that will hold ink without it bleeding into the fibers. I play with the contrast, or lack thereof, between surface and ink. I’ve been envisioning these woodcuts for a few years now. I’ve been so excited to print with Prussian blue ink onto the Japanese paper, creating contrasts in color and ink on paper, and exploring the shapes of the needle patterns.