Flora Prints and Paintings
My floral prints play with the traditions of flower pressing often done as remembrance of place or event or used by 18th century botanists as a means of plant identification with a direct impression, photogram or cyanotype. In either instance such impressions, whether the direct press or in the photo print, were initially considered women’s work. My impetus is more integral to my need and respect for natural beauty . During the covid their making has been a source of calm and hope. I’ve often chosen to celebrate the “weeds” and plants surrounding my studio, friend’s vegetable gardens, as well as any other flora I come across.
Hue enlivens my appropriations as remembrance of place , events and friends. The making involves drying, cutting and then printing the flora as a collagraph or raised surface, using counter and ghosts prints of multiple runs through the press to develop the image on a variety of papers. The inks are modified in viscosity for infinite variation. The selective placement of multiple colors, successively ,brings life to the work in a somewhat unpredictable manner and pleasant surprise.
I use the realism of the flora -reinvented by reconfiguration and reassembly – to present a garden. As I’m a painter, as well, I further explore this garden of flora on a larger scale.