March 2 – March 27 | Tuesday–Saturday | 1-5 pm | Centre 64 Gallery | 250-427-4919 | [email protected] | also available online

“A retrospective collection of relief wood block prints and drawings reflective of my time spent in Canada’s Northwest Territories, capturing some of the present and disappearing history that has been a part of the pioneered Canadian northern frontier.”

Artist Statement:
Where ever I have made my place of residence I have been inspired by local history and iconic images that have influenced people in those communities or contributed to their ongoing history.

Relief printmaking is an antiquated format of artistic expression and a challenging medium to work in as three dimensional relief transfers onto a finished two dimensional format.

The artist uses the physical nature of wood as a tool. When inked, the wood grain texture, in combination with the image of carved relief markings made by chisels and gauges, then transfers onto a paper surface, the printmaker’s canvass, as technique.

I find that wood relief conveys a visual sense of history to me, virtually through the medium itself as a tool of historical significance, which sparks my desire to capture objects and places that are influential over time.

A technique called relief reduction, an inevitable progression where colour is concerned, is introduced into the finished image on a single wood block through a method of physical reduction of the block by carving away each introduced colour, therefore the artist must always move forward simultaneously limiting the edition number.

Another challenging feature of relief printmaking is that a recognizable image such as a building, landscape or written word must be carved in reverse as the relief print is a mirrored image.