a suite of eight multi-media monoprints on BFK Rives
The Buckram Bride
Buckram is 1.a stiff heavily sized fabric used for interlinings in garments, for stiffening in millinery, and in bookbinding, known as tarlatan in printmaking. 2. archaic : stiffness, rigidity
The Bride is the central image of this series of eight monotypes. It appears in each print collaged along with imagery of hands and snakes, of a bouquet, a bombed city, a circle of buds. The Bride is situated in intimate and familiar landscapes and in epic dreamscapes of Eurydice, Ophelia and Pandora.
The series explores concepts of marriage in process as well as pictorial terms. As a cumulative process, done blindly on the blank side of the paper, each composition performs acts of relationship and commitment; the marriage of ink to paper, the photographic to the gestural, the fragment to the whole, memory to the present.
The Buckram Bride is process oriented and acidly coloured. The imagery comes from partially inked zinc plates, photographs, observational drawing, and embossings from actual pieces of tarlatan fabric..
The Buckram Bride reflects my coupling in life but also me as an artist being in love with etching.
The Buckram Bride "The Woman Left Holding the Snake"
"The Woman Left Holding the Snake" 20" x 26"
The Buckram Bride "Fete Champagne"
"Fete Champagne"
The Buckram Bride "Spring Bride"
"Spring Bride"
The Buckram Bride "Eurydice Remembers"
Buckram Bride - Eurydice Remembers
The Buckram Bride "Honeymoon Voyage de Noces"
Buckram Bride - Voyage de Noces, Honymoon Vovage
The Buckram Bride "Pandora veut se remettre /Pandora wants to go back"
Pandora wants back, Pandora veut se remettre
The Buckram Bride "Urban Ophelia"
"Urban Ophelia"
The Buckram Bride "Going Home"
"Going Home"
The Images There are certain motifs that are repeated in several of the prints such as the snake, the hooded bride, the buckram veil, and the bride with flowers, and the city in ruins.
MOTIF #1 Snake
snake detail from "The Woman Left Holding the Snake"
snake detail from "Fete Champagne"
snake detail from "Spring Bride"
MOTIF #2 Hooded Bride
hooded bride detail from "Spring Bride"
hooded bride detail from "Eurydice Remembers "
hooded bride detail from "Honeymoon, Voyage de Noces"
MOTIF #3 tartatan embossing
MOTIF #4 bride with flowers
MOTIF #5 city in ruins
Other Details & Motifs
The Buckram Bride the making of...
Rules- 'Terms Of Engagement' 1.Use the ugliest colours. 2.Collect the cast of characters, a limited group of images, beforehand and consider them 'materials'. 3.Put in what I want to be there. 4.Build the composition by adding one element after another; improvise rather than plan the narrative. 5.Check the results for only a few seconds, enough to position the next element.
To transfer images from previously made etchings I 'printed' the whole plate but only inked the parts that I wanted to capture. The plate marks and embossed lines were erased/flattened by multiple passages through the press as the composition evolved.