River Walk 1
16" x 16"
collage on board

As 2023 came to a close, I found myself wanting to switch the way that I make art. During 2023, I had explored the use of found images and different papers: free web based photographs, vintage family photos, and some specialty papers purchased online. Many of the collages had to do with my interior life and how I expressed those feelings and ideas with different materials. Truthfully though, my art making became very dependent on finding photos, scanning and editing them, and then printing them. As much as I loved the photos and the resulting work, I was sick of being on the computer! What a grind. And to make things worse, my computer crashed and some of my source photos were lost. It was then that I realized that I was perhaps working in the wrong direction and with the wrong tools for my temperament.

So, I slowly began to pivot. I thought of ways to make art that didn't involve the computer so much. I unearthed my printing plate (gelli plate) from the closet and started to mess around with it.  I also broke out my artist grade crayons, my colored pencils and my sewing machine. Going low tech never felt so good!

To begin things, I chose to work on two themes that have been reoccurring in my work for awhile now: nature and nurture. I have worked on both ideas separately. What would happen if I tried to combine them in a more purposeful way?

With the images I print and the colors that I select, I am trying to focus on what I see around me on my walks and sporadic hikes. At the same time, I have quilts on my mind: The patterns, the colors, and their history: Quilts are the ultimate in nurturing. They keep us warm and are given to us in love and friendship. Maybe I am drawing a tenuous attachment here but I see nature as nurturing and the quilts as nurturing in the same sort of way. Quilts too are very reassuring with their grid like construction and block repetition. There is an orderliness there that is similar to what you find in nature. For the first time too I am stitching the pieces together with my sewing machine. I see this as an active and tangible  way to fuse the two ideas of nature and nurture together. 

One thing is sure. As the year progresses I will continue to put these two ideas together. For now I am actively fleshing  them out, as they say. Nature and nurture are part of my experience in the world. They are both pieces of the puzzle that I try to solve every day. It's my hope that as I work, the materials and format will tell me what I need to know.

Thanks,
Libby
​[email protected]
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Can we ever get away from ourselves? I have wondered about this over the years; are our true natures inevitable and unescapable? It has occurred to me that human beings have an inviolable core. I think all of our efforts are meant to help bring us back to this immutable center. We just naturally strive for equilibrium and search for familiarity.  I think it is this core that shows up as the "nature" part of ourselves. And it is the flexibility in either direction due to influence, environment, and upbringing that represents the "nurture" part of the equation. These ideas are at the root of my thinking and are present in my work this year as I begin again.  

For my current work, I have been drawn back to the grid and the idea of quilting. Quilting was where I started with art making. There is a lot of order in quilt making. Blocks get lined up and points are sharp. It's very orderly and it is something that I find comforting. As a challenge to myself, I decided to combine the concept of quilt making with collage work and printmaking. Normally I paint my own collage papers but I wanted to try printing them instead on a gelli plate. Turns out this printing method can be very random. It's hard for me to control the outcome of these prints. I often feel that the best prints are complete surprises.  This diversity in the printing results made me think about the differences (and similarities) among people and brought me back to my original question: can we ever escape ourselves?.

I don't know the answer but it's what I am going to think about this year as I make my work. I want to represent my thoughts and feelings about nature and nurture and the reciprocal and interconnected relationship between the two. I also want to play with the multiple meanings of those two words. To do this, I will use colors, textures, and lines that might evoke natural elements. At the same time, the grid like format will be familiar in its orderly layout. A push and pull between nature, order and randomness. I  hope the viewer will notice squares, rectangles and triangles evoking quilt like patterns while also noticing soothing colors, images, and patterns that evoke ideas of the natural world. For the first time, I am using my sewing machine to stitch the different pieces of paper together. I feel this is a kind of way to represent the fusion of these two themes in a tangible way. As with all of my work,  I hope that the elements I use will suggest a kind of narrative to the viewer, something I haven't thought about but that will be personal for them.

42124: I am continuing to work on this subject and have moved the original post here to make room for more artwork on the 2024 page.
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