Verse to Image Exhibit: the poet has come back

Kathryn V. Crabbe. 2012. The Poet Has Come Back. Drypoint etching and monoprint, 13 x 26 inches My newest hand pulled fine art print is a combination etching and monoprint. It was created for the "Verse to Image Exhibition" at the Riverside Community Arts Association Center in Riverside, California.

This exhibit features members of the Printmakers Network affiliated with the Riverside Art Museum and explores the connections and spaces between literature and the plastic arts with displays of writing that have inspired the artists' works on view.

My print was inspired by Margaret Atwood's poem The Poet Has Come Back and by a quote about rebellion from Chris Hedge's book Death of the Liberal Class.

Atwood's poem talks about the god of poets having two hands, "the dexterous and the sinister" which actually refers to the left and right hands, something of great interest for me due to five years spent painting and drawing exclusively with my non dominant left hand in early 2000. Atwood's lines below were explored in the print I created.

The poet has come back to being a poet after decades of being virtuous instead...Welcome back, my dear. Time to resume our vigil, time to unlock the cellar door.

To understand humanities intuitive, 'primitive' past I looked to the earliest known drawings (and prints) created some 35,000 years ago in the Chauvet Caves of Southern France. (see image to the left) I also took notes and made sketches from Werner Herzog's 2010 documentary film, Cave of Forgotten Dreams for which he was granted the rare privilege of filming inside the caves.

I also investigated the groundbreaking work of archaelogist, Marija Gimbutas who explored Neolithic Goddess culture, mythology, linguistics and folklore in her book The Language of the Goddess. Gimbutas writes:

Hands and feet symbolize the touch of the Goddess; they impart her energy.

The color red is the symbol of life.

Figurines occasionally have enormous hands seemingly imparting divine energy or spells.

Chauvet Cave - handprints

In the Chauvet Caves are walls containing two different kinds of palm prints, one kind was made by pressing the fleshy round part of the palm of a hand onto the wall's surface and the other by spraying the color red around the hand.

In my etching/monoprint I made a full hand print (in black) using my right hand to represent the left brain dominant, logical society of today and another print (in red) using the fleshy base of my left palm to represent the intuitive, right brained world of our Paleolithic ancestors. In between the two hand prints I printed an etching of a root like symbol to connect the two worlds; both the rational, present day society and our intuitive past.

It is important that we, as a culture are presented with a vision of this possibility. We need to acknowledge and face our shadow side, our fears, our left hand and yes, stand vigil at the cellar door so that once again the poet has two hands, the dexterous and the sinister.

This piece also symbolizes how important the role of the artist and our imagination can be, especially in today's society. By making our mark, by critical thinking, skepticism and risk taking I ask each one of you to consider how important art, the imagination and the artist can be in North America today.

We must always learn from and study the example of other peoples throughout the world, but we do have to analyze our own conditions here in the belly of the beast. We, as conscious artists, must combat the torrent of mind-control with a real alternative - murals, songs, dance, poetry that contain different values and have educational content as well as beauty...everything is political.

Miranda Bergman, Mural, Mural on the Wall from Art on the Line, Essays by Artists about the Point Where Their Art & Activism Intersect, Edited by Jack Hirschman

VERSE TO IMAGE EXHIBITION Riverside Community Arts Association Center Riverside, California Exhibition dates: March 22 – April 21 Reception: April 5, 6-9pm (during Riverside Arts Walk)

V Series

Finally finished the third and final print in the V Series from my BodyPrint Healing Series. The first two are monotypes and the third is a drypoint etching. All three will be on exhibit at the 2011 Riverside Art Museum Off The Wall Event. V1, 6.25 x 10.25 inches, Monotype, Kathryn V. Crabbe, 2011

V2, 6.25 x 10.25 inches, Monotype, 2011

V Etch, 6.25 x 10.25, drypoint etching, 2011

More here: http://www.kathrynvcrabbe.com/2011/2011-healing-bodyprints/

Artist Statement

The current body of mixed media paintings, Journey Into Intimacy and prints, BodyPrint Healing Series are a visual representation of an intuitive cathartic process.

Journey Into Intimacy depicts an inner landscape of the senses. Part dream, part yearning and part sacred symbol the work stems from a holistic perception of the world. Emotions are spiritualized into Divine patterns pre-existing in nature; the spiral, the circle, a seedpod, a flower.

The paintings are steeped in pure and brilliant SoCal color. “The lack of tradition here allows artists to go farther out in defining their own culture.” (Chris Burden) Lyrically and synaesthetically responsive to the music that inspires the work the process is intuitive and spontaneous, the brushstrokes restless and absurd in their unashamed vulnerability.

Charcoal, pastel and acrylics are applied in layers to a smooth prepared surface using garden rakes, fingers, (house painting) brushes, sponges, scraping tools and my body pressed into the surface; the process itself leading the way.

“Even as we pass into a time when pencil smudges themselves are an increasingly exoticized thing of the past, the world is still tactile and material. To touch it is to know it.” (Amy Sillman, Art Forum, Summer 2011)

The BodyPrint Healing Series depicts various body parts in need of healing. Each body part is printed in a series of three. The first two prints are monotypes of the body imprinted onto plexiglass and printed with an etching press. The third print is etched into the plexiglass plate and depicts the inked up impression of a body part. The act of scratching or etching into the plexiglass sublimates the need for harm to come to the body.

 

Day 2 - Carborundum Collagraph with a Side of Monotype

Day 2 of a 4 day printmaking workshop with Amber George Carborundum Collagraph with a Side of Monotype Creative chaos using Akua inks which are non toxic.

 

 

 

 

 

Carborundum Collagraph with a Side of Monotype

Applying carborundum (Silicon carbide) to a sheet of mylar. After it dries I'll ink it up the carborundum with Akua intaglio inks and then apply it to a monoprint and then reprint it using an etching press.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's All About the Trash

100 Words This blog has turned into an artist's blog (with a smattering of interviews) although nothing new has been painted (altho I did paint a 10x10 building and am preparing my front hallway for my printmaking equipment.)

Kathy Crabbe printmaking etching press

It's all about the trash. I'm clearing, cleaning, consigning and giving away HEAPS of STUFF!

 

My portfolio is up on my new Flickr site, my Artist's Resume and Statement are up and I'm takin' a class. I need a photographer (or do I? Ask Amber).

Moon Musing, as always continues especially for Wednesday's total lunar eclipse and Full Moon in Sagittarius.