May 2023

Relief/Mono prints on various paper; crochet

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This series of relief and mono-prints explores the intestines and the deterioration of the intestines in the eventual bowel eruption that could occur. Moving from left to right in the installation I broke down the structured look of relief printing and moved farther into mono printing and abstracting my subject matter. I first started by following traditional methods to create a series of relief prints. I then explored using water-soluble oils and mixing that with the ink, and I created shadows and highlights that made the gut look wet and visceral. In addition to this, I mono-printed using plexiglass. This process was the most tedious, but I was able to utilize my painting skills to create even more textures than what I could accomplish with just the oil. As I was working I was thinking about how messy our living guts can get.  My father’s bowel erupted in 2018, and as I was painting I imagined what his bowel eruption might’ve looked like.  Thus I created several messy prints that vaguely resembled an intestine but were more gushy and abstracted.  This process was cathartic for me as I found a creative outlet to speak to that experience.

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While installing, I was particular about which prints went where since no two prints were the same. The result was a wall that progressed from organized, methodical prints to chaotic, expressive prints. I also included a few elements from my thesis work, a 20-foot-long crochet intestine, and a few blood cells.  I took the intestine and strung it from the wall that hangs down and piles up on the floor.