REGENERATION

Central Vermont Medical Center
130 Fisher Road, Berlin, VT
August 28 – Oct. 25, 2013

REGENERATION
– act of regenerating; state of being regenerated.

I am interested in the use of repetition and process in healing and nurturing our spirits. I notice in my life a yearning for space, both physical and mental and time to breathe, reflect and consider. I find that knitting forces me to slow down and allows me that soulful space of regeneration.

The abstract pattern that is created through knit is endlessly fascinating to me. Opening up the stitches to expose the twists and turns the yarn takes as it makes a fabric feels akin to exposing the great secrets of life. Knit pattern is created from a single strand, at times mistakes are made, the pattern unravels and becomes a tangled mess or can be reformed into a new pattern. These are all metaphors for our life and healing process. As I work with patterns, opening up parts, microcosms emerge. The structures become cellular or skeletal in nature or take on their own sculptural shapes.  Beauty in its most essential form.

In this work I often print from pieces that I have knit. I have also learned to draw and paint the process of knitting. By combining the techniques of monoprinting with drawing, the act of knitting becomes a way for me to explore issues of process, repetition, space and time. Printmaking is inherently a repetitious process involving the inking of plates, placing the inked plate on the press bed, placing the paper on the plate, covering with blankets and rolling the bed through the press. With monoprint, I build up layers of imagery by printing multiple times on the same paper. I often use the “ghost”, which is the ink left on the plate after printing, to create textures and veils. The transfer of imagery from plate to paper is challenging to control and requires a certain level of letting go for the imagery to emerge.

I hear the call to explore our inner riches and make time for our selves in this distracting, technological world.  My intention is that these images evoke the connection to soul that supports healing and regeneration.