Healer's prints drying on a flatbed press (Courtesy of Flatbed Press)
Imagine Russian nesting dolls. But it's not a palm-sized stackable figure, it's on canvas and large enough to stare into the eye. We're now at the point where we can grasp the vast scope of Annalize Gratovich's ongoing print collection, Carrying Things From Home.
Announced as part of PrintAustin, a month-long festival spotlighting Austin's printmaking scene, Gratovich's 10-year project consists of up to seven towering works in an eight-part series (final prints) It has been. fool (must be completed by the end of the year).In the center of each canvas matryoshka– Wind doll figure. The element names are as follows: The Mariner, hunteror mother. Their dark shadowed eyes stare outward. The rounded figures, dressed in richly decorated robes and surrounded by plants, stylize the symbols of their trade, such as a whale covered in arrows, a curled up hare, and the face of a protected child. It is expressed as
Latest exhibition debuts healer, a gigantic being dressed in an elaborate smock crowned with leaves and nests. Mossy greens and browns spotlight the fungi sprouting at the doll's feet. Intricate details like a spiderweb headpiece, smock whorls, and overlapping tendrils of leaves command attention. My mind swirls trying to draw mythical connections between each element drawn in ink. Six of his other prints similarly evoke a fascinating mystery.Why are there droopy birds? builder? What will be held? undertakerA small coffin?Is there wood in it? mother Is it there to show personal growth or ancestral roots?
According to Gratovich, “carrying things from home” consciously derives from her own cultural landscape. Her dolls and textiles pay homage to her Ukrainian heritage. The plants and desert-tinged color palette are reminiscent of her hometown in Texas. One of the oldest prints, musician, is directly inspired by her history. Here the doll is holding a large accordion and a lit cigarette dangling from its mouth. This reminds him of Gratovich's great-grandfather, who was a Ukrainian refugee during World War II. He fled the country, but took the accordion with him and used it to entertain American soldiers in exchange for cigarettes. Archetypes hold the actual tokens that appear in the story.
This series is a labor of love and focuses on labor. Gratovich uses the Cinecolé woodblock technique, which involves layering a paper design onto a woodblock print to add color and dimension.
This series is a labor of love and focuses on labor. Gratovich uses the Cinecolé woodblock technique, which involves layering a paper design onto a woodblock print to add color and dimension. Gratovich chooses his own shades and hand-dyes the paper. healer It contains approximately 60 paper elements and was carefully and quickly applied with wheat paste before finishing the print. With a work this large (each canvas is 71 x 40 inches), it takes a team to complete the process. For this piece, Flatbed Press members Alyssa Ebinger, Emery Spina, and Paige Peruskia helped Gratovich with art setting and production. The Chine Colle process adds delicate layering to each piece, creating a slight fluff and depth. Between that and the enormity of the prints, witnessing this collection in person is a must.
Although the doll's “totemic presence” is the focus of the exhibit, the flatbed also features a small selection of Gratovic's typographic and collage works. There are folkloric botanical prints and smaller-scale works full of sinewy leaves and branching roots, occasionally interrupted by eerie skeletal shapes.
Her collages combine remnants of prints framed in copper and wood, combining similar floral motifs with hands and faces. Gratovich turned to collage after being diagnosed and treated for an autoimmune disease. “Collages were works that I could take with me when I had to leave the house, work from bed, or be in the hospital,” Glatovich says. “I lost a lot of my physical ability due to my illness, and of course I lost my creativity. I had done a little collage work before, but I wasn't in the studio or able to develop new print work. Sometimes that practice really blossomed.'' The longing, grasping motifs in these works are particularly reflective of her journey.It was especially fun Transformation I and IIleaves, stars and clips of falling petals surround the animalistic head.
Regardless of the piece, whether a small woodcut or her magnificent figures, Gratovich's work rotates through the cycles of nature, maintaining a dangerous tension between death and growth. Depictions of her health, doubts, fears, and hopes pop out from each inked shape. Gratovich's art may have been sown directly from her presence, but it perfectly represents the universal passageways that run through humanity.
“Carry things from home”
flatbed press
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