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Current Project
I feel moved when sunlight touches an object in the afternoon and visualize the space around me. I walk out and wander around to observe shapes of shadows. I realize that shadows make spaces visible. I find myself in the spaces enjoying architecture delineated by sunlight. Buildings and their shadows are layered and blended together creating momentary beauty of colors and shapes. These scenes are temporary, and will change or disappear in the next moment. They are very precious because their occurrence is the unique combination of a place, sunlight, and the precise moment I happen upon the scene Ð like an eclipse. I have been working with the intaglio process, concentrating mainly on etching and aquatint. In the process of printmaking there is a plate, but the plate itself is not the artwork. The print that is generated is a secondary image Ð like a shadow. I find I can express my feelings best using the tones of black and white. My paintings have been influenced by my printmaking processes. The monochromatic palette and tonal values of my prints extend to my oil paintings. The strong geometric compositions of my prints appear in my painting as well. On the other hand, the way I layer color washes in my paintings has influenced the way I layer aquatint grounds in my intaglio printmaking. I paint as a printmaker and I make prints as a painter. Last year I left the San Francisco Bay Area for a teaching position at Mesa State College in Grand Junction, Colorado. Since I lived here for fourteen years, I feel an attachment to the Bay Area which still appears in my work. While I am still mainly producing Bay Area cityscapes in my paintings and prints, I have noticed that the scenery of the West has started to appear in my most recent works. I realize I am being converted little by little by my new circumstances that include the light quality and the colors of this new region. This summer I stayed in San Francisco for several weeks and I noticed to my surprise that the city had changed. Particularly significant was the transformation of the Hunters Point Shipyard where I had a studio for nine years. Once again I noted that nothing is permanent and everything is constantly changing: light, cityscape and even myself. September 2007 |