Studio Visit:
In Progress: A Forest Cacophony
Duos, Trios, Quartets, Quintets, Ensembles
Pictured above are views of a recent studio “installation” of a selection of unfinished prints, paintings and print/painting/glass assemblages that have been evolving collectively for the last year - since March 2020. Daily I walk amongst and photograph the varied and many trees of the Wissahickon Valley trails and those surrounding my Germantown studio. Generating momentum - influenced by the multitudes of iconic, monumental trees I encounter, a silkscreen image-making process spins away in my studio. All of its repetition and variation approximates my accumulated daily walking experiences: repeating, reverberating, echoing images of passing under or stretching over. Oaks pines, Tulips unfold and transform. Physically shifting in the moving seasons, space and light. Also evolving as they overlap, fade and shift in excavations of memory and imagination.
Tree forms:
rhythmic repeating
cast distorted silhouettes
contrasting surfaces
make. many color-textures
visual glimpses
samples
drips and gestures …
…throwing down beats.
Shadows, branches, leaves-
and bright dappled notes.
Melody fragments
phrases-
pulsing translucent tones.
Printmaking amplifies my compulsive practice of producing groups of related “base” (bass!) images-2, 3, 4, 5, 6…8 at a time. Next: time to paint upon the print. Successively brushing in, spraying on… layering, accenting, removing and revealing tree trunks, bending branches and interlacing stained glass canopies. Titles such as SOLO, DUET, TRIO, QUARTET etc. reference assembled dynamic figure-like forms exchanging gestures of contrast and likeness- breathing in play. Observing a copse of trees overhead - I sometimes see a troupe of actors, dancers or musicians stretching and swaying above me as they bend and emote. Moon and sun spotlight and break upon branches casting red, yellow or turquoise shadows across seasons.