February 2015
2-plate blockprint
Two 3.75" circles on 11"x15" paper
Almost one year ago I was asked to participate in a print-maker's response to the 2007 car-bombing of
Al-Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad. As a landscape based artist this has been a difficult
process from the start. After more than six months, with many ideas and
sketches being tossed around that were far removed from my current body of
work, I returned to the landscape. After a lot of thought I stayed true to my
artistic practice and incorporated three themes that I have been working with
recently; Rorschach landscapes, small circular prints and the presence of old factories
and other signs of industrial decay within the natural world.
The first breakthrough occurred when I made the connection
between the title of the show, Absence and Presence, and a series of Rorschach
landscape prints that I have returned to from time to time. The duality of the
mirror-image landscapes aided my thought process on a more conceptual level.
What changed was the introduction of time within the mirror image. Adding to this
was the presence of the two circular images on one block. It seemed as if I was
looking through a set of binoculars on an unfolding scene of violence.
In the end this has been a profoundly meaningful, if not difficult
process, one that took much longer than I could have anticipated. What has
changed for me is that I found a vehicle to express my frustration and horror
about violence in our lives. In the blink of an eye some unfortunate act of
violence can change our lives forever, whether you are an artist, bookseller or
simply an innocent bystander. It takes but a second to change everything.
