The Swimmer
(2020-present)
I often make initial sketches through a loose, intuitive process with watercolor inks and then solidify and finalize these images by making them into a woodcut or silkscreen print. I tend to work on multiple constellations of work over time, picking up threads and returning to themes, building them out through new prints and pieces. One of these current constellations is growing around a figure I call The Swimmer.
Although this figure first appeared in my work as a ceramic sculpture in 2018, I am currently exploring their possibilities in woodcut and silkscreen printmaking. While the initial spark for these works came from my partner and their love of water, I don't consider them to be portraits. They are explorations of water and our human and emotional relationship to it. Over the past years I have allowed this constellation of work to expand out from the first woodcut print (Swimmers). I follow my intuition about what will come next, one small series leading to another.
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