BOTANICAL SPECIMENS: A SERIES OF RELIEF AND INTAGLIO PRINT VARIATIONS INDEXING PLANT FORMS A thesis submitted to the College of the Arts of Kent State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts by Pamela Testa May 2013 Thesis written by Pamela Testa B.F.A., Kent State University, 2008 M.F.A., Kent State University, 2013 Approved by ___________________________, Advisor J. Noel Reifel ___________________________, Director, School of Art Christine Havice ___________________________, Dean, College of the Arts John R. Crawford ii TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………....……………..…………………...iii LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………….…..……..….………………………iv AKNOWLEDGEMENTS.…………………….………………………....................................v BOTANICAL SPECIMENS…………………..………………………….…………………......1 FIGURES………………………………………………………………………………………...8 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………………...…..23 iii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Pamela Testa, Fern Series 1.1…………………………....……………..…….….....8 2. Pamela Testa, Fern Series 1.2…………………………....……………..………......9 3. Pamela Testa, Elm (in Black)..…………………………..…..…………...………....10 4. Pamela Testa, Fern Series 2.2…………………………..…..…………...………....11 5. Pamela Testa, Fern Series 2.3.…………………………..……..………..………....12 6. Pamela Testa, Fern Series 2.4……….…………………..……..………..………....13 7. Pamela Testa, Elm (in Silver)……………………………..……..………..………....14 8. Pamela Testa, Fern Series 3.2...……………………..…..……………..………......15 9. Pamela Testa, Fern Series 3.3…………………………..………………..………....16 10. Pamela Testa, Fern Series 3.4……………………………..……………..………....17 11. Pamela Testa, Elm (in Sepia)……..………………………..……………..………....18 12. Pamela Testa, Fern Series 4.1…………………………..………………..………....19 13. Pamela Testa, Fern Series 4.2…………………………..………………..………....20 14. Pamela Testa, Botanical Specimens: A Series of Relief and Intaglio Print Variations Indexing Plant Forms, (Installation View 1)……..……………………...21 15. Pamela Testa, Botanical Specimens: A Series of Relief and Intaglio Print Variations Indexing Plant Forms, (Installation View 2)….………………...……….22 iv AKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my family—my husband, Todd and my two sons Anthony and Dominic—for always supporting and inspiring me. My advisor, mentor and friend, Noel Reifel for leading me to a lifelong adventure in printmaking and passing on his great knowledge. My committee members, Michael Loderstedt and Isabel Farnsworth for their support and guidance. Christine Havice, for her encouragement and support. Rachel Stipe and Gemini G.E.L. for generously donating the paper for this body of work. Travis Dailey and Megan Amendt for their assistance printing this body of work from start to finish. Erica Criss and Bridget O’Donnell for keeping me sane and helping me find my words. Anthony Bartholomew for inspiring me with his knowledge, generosity and incredible spirit. My parents, Tom and Sue Taormina for their continued support. My grandfather, Anthony Taormina, for inspiring me to follow my own path. v 1 BOTANICAL SPECIMENS Botanical Specimens: A Series of Relief and Intaglio Print Variations Indexing Plant Forms, is a series of prints that are meant to stimulate our appreciation for nature. I am creating an interaction between myself and the natural object through the use of printmaking. The structure of modern civilization has made it impossible to live without rapidly evolving technology. There are many benefits to modern living; such as improved health care and more abundant and better food. However, the industrial revolution and globalization have created a dramatic environmental shift that reduces our planets green spaces and limits our opportunities for interaction within nature. Various media are deluging us with warnings. Numerous articles, books and documentaries have discussed various studies that have been conducted concerning the impact of this shift on mental health. Research has shown that memory and attention suffer as a result of this technological advancement, and lead to emotional disorders, such as anxiety and depression. Some of the contributing factors are noise pollution, social pressure from greater competition, and weaker community ties. I combat my own feelings of anxiety by enjoying as much time outdoors as possible; gardening, hiking and photographing the natural world for inspiration, to name a few. Using my own back yard, an elm tree and wild fern plants came to represent nature, and time spent in nature. Bringing awareness back to an innate state allows me to reflect and forget time and my responsibilities. 2 I believe that our connection to nature leads to a better understanding of ourselves. Our environment dictates how we live and our daily struggle. I have chosen an elm tree and fern plants as universal symbols for the human connection to the earth. The choice of printmaking as my medium reflects my desire to explore natural phenomena by recording graphically the design that the tree bark and fern plants have created. By allowing the object to participate directly in the making of the image of itself, the object informs its own image and an indexing process occurs. Through the printmaking process, I am able to work in a direct manner, both physically and conceptually. The work began with the printing of an elm tree in my back yard. Inspired by the scale, materials and process-driven work by artists like Cai Guo-Qiang and Diana Cooper, I decided that printing the tree directly would be the most effective and true way to show its size and the complexity of its bark pattern. After researching the inks to be sure that they would not harm the tree, I applied ink to the tree in relief with a soft brayer. With the help of an assistant and ladder, I wrapped a piece of silk measuring 15’ x 6’ around the inked up tree. The fabric was then burnished by hand to make the print. Next, a piece of acetate, 24” x 36,” was placed over a section of the fabric print of the elm tree. With a marker, I traced the black areas of the print onto the acetate. This became the transparency that was exposed onto a photo-plate. Once the image was developed on the plate, I etched it using the open-bite process. Following the natural lines and patterns of the image, I repeatedly 3 traced and etched the pre-existing mark, resulting in concentric shapes that etched deeper in each state. The intention was to reiterate the object’s origins by showing a resemblance to the depth and shapes of the bark of the tree. The bark images are printed in relief. When printing the plate, successive impressions involve subtle changes to the color. Because of the direct way the tree was printed, the tree informed the decision to print the photo plate in relief and let it stand on its own, as the tree does, in its natural environment. I then collected fresh ferns from a natural bog on my property and stored them in a cooler to preserve them until printing. The fern leaves are delicate and can only be used one time through the press for a good impression. Using the relief process, both sides of the leaf were printed at one time using the press, resulting in two fern prints. This was done by inking up a glass surface, laying the leaf on the inked surface, and then rolling the other side with an inked brayer. The pressure of rolling the brayer over the top of the leaf allowed the leaf to accept ink on the underside of the leaf as well. By sandwiching the inked leaf between two pieces of paper, I was able to print both sides of the leaf simultaneously. I chose to cut out areas of the paper to highlight the shape and delicacy of the leaf while leaving little “veins” of support in between the leaves, as a way to show my hand and interference with the object. The repetitive act of cutting consumed time and energy while imposing my hand onto the work. This part of the process is where I have my meditative interaction with the print. In an obsessive way, I am intensely focused on the task of cutting around the printed leaf. As I focus, I am able to quiet my thoughts and anxieties and I start to feel 4 calmer. After a while, new thoughts and ideas start to come to mind and I write them down. This is how I am able to use time in small sections to accomplish more complex patterns and designs in my pieces. Both the tree and fern prints have a photograph-like quality that informed my decision to transfer the acetate drawing of the bark pattern and the cut-out printed image photographically to another matrix. The cut-out fern print was utilized in two ways. First, I used a wire brush on a piece of wood to bring out its natural grain pattern and lightly sanded it. I then sealed it with a water-based acrylic sealant, and coated it with a screen- printing photo-emulsion. The cut-out was then exposed photographically to the coated board. The developed, hardened photo-emulsion is raised on the surface of the wood, creating a new matrix that can be printed in intaglio. I also coated two of the cut-out prints with acrylic gel medium to seal them so they could be used as relief objects or as block-out stencils. The fern is not usually just one leaf; it is always in a colony of other ferns. This simple observation led to my decision to create several matrices from the ferns to layer during the printing process. The printmaking process allows for experimentation with paper, color, technique and scale. I received a donation of leftover and scrap paper from a friend who works in the Los Angeles printshop, Gemini, G.E.L., which had been specially ordered for artists such as Richard Serra, Julie Mehretu, and Jonathan Borofsky. The paper is of the highest quality, made from organic rag material with various ranges in weight and texture. Some of the paper resulted in a softer- 5 looking print, while the thicker and heavier paper enabled me to show the depth of the matrix.