A tattooed SERPENT-DRAGON rests on a nest of twigs. The twigs symbolize the microbial ecosystem we live in and that our bodies extend beyond our skin. Another serpent-dragon grows ROOTS like a tree which symbolize our ability to be rooted. Dandelion seeds disperse and fly as if they had wings intersecting another tattooed serpent-dragon to symbolize our ability to CREATE and nurture.
Lunar New Year 2024 will be the year of the Wood Dragon. The dragon is the only mythic animal in the Chinese Zodiac. It is associated with good luck, health, abundance, and strength. The element of wood is one of the five elements that constitute human and ecological health in traditional acupuncture. My own beliefs about our embeddedness in nature are reinforced by these theories and insights. The wood element is easily seen in trees where their rooted trunks expand with their branches. Extending these thoughts to our own health and well being, the Wood Dragon is about our own rootedness and our abilities to expand and grow.
are fifteen of my unique palladium prints. That the black and white palladium prints are in Taos is significant because in Zuni culture the use of black and white in their pottery represents the upper world. The featured print here of her hands crossed in a flight movement with her bird tattoo relates to the world of spirit.
My palladium prints are handmade using the traditional analogue darkroom techniques of making negatives, either camera-less or photographs with a 4X5 large format camera. Brushing palladium on handmade Japanese gampi, I layer my negatives and expose them using the sun. The resulting montage is spontaneous and suggests movement with the images embedded in a paper with the tactility of silk.
Art and Poetry
When in the Gulf of Maine the sea ebbs, the seaweed named Irish moss is revealed. Irish moss cushions living things in layers. Rachel Carson describes this as “life exists on other life, or within it, or under it, or above it” in her book “The Edge of the Sea”.
At Arts Gowanus Open Studios, October 19 and 20, noon to 6 PM, 69 Second Ave., Brooklyn, I will display this camera-less, palladium print in collaboration with this poem by poet Diane Mehta.
Vent a dome, invent a habitat
for tubeworm, sea-stout, eelpout
waltzing, 700 degrees in love.
They must know their origin
is hydrothermal swirling,
that fate is motion-of-lfe
agitating to occupy the world.
Art on Exhibit
This November 2024 I have two special, to me, artworks on exhibit in a juried exhibition called “Spectrum of Exposure” at BWAC, Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition in Red Hook, Brooklyn, NY.
These two works reflect my desires that women, children and nature will flourish despite the violence and destruction we are witnessing. I will share my vision for this particular artwork, “Breathe”, which I am featuring in this post.
I have developed this work with layers of photographs of a woman and her baby, branches of an oak tree and the blossoms of this oak tree. The woman with her birthing baby seem to support the branching oak. The blossoms of the oak tree drape around them. I have printed all the negatives using palladium, which I brush onto handmade Japanese gampi paper. Then I painted green and red pearlescent watercolor. The green is for photosynthesis that trees use to convert carbon dioxide into sugars and release oxygen, which we breathe. The red is our blood, the carrier of oxygen in our bodies.
This work of life and breath is my offering to women, children, plants and animals worldwide.
12/12 Exhibit at Est. Gallery
One of my prints, from my gelatin silver Iris flower prints, is part of an exhibit at Est. Gallery from Dec. 12, 2024 to Jan. 12, 2025. The curator, Emily Chiavelli, chose art works that didn’t exceed 12 X 12 inches. I am thrilled to have my artwork among the 100 other artworks chosen from over 1,000 entries for this exhibit. Est. Gallery is in Brooklyn, New York.
This large, 16 X 20 inch, palladium print is the tail of a shrimp.
Power, Privilege and Identity
I identify with the powers Nature gives us and our interdependence with Nature. Recently my work “Cascade” was printed on a banner for an exhibit surrounding Coffey Park in Red Hook, Brooklyn. The theme of the exhibit was “Power, Privilege and Identity” which fits the diversity of people who live there.
In my work, her tattooed snake is a symbol of transformation and renewal. Her cascading roots are like the roots of the trees surrounding her in the park. They speak of our needs for stability, home and nourishment that should be available to all people.
My other banner is titled “Breath”. This work is about our interdependence on trees for the oxygen we breathe. This work is also on my website under “ECO FEMINISM”.
Two of the sponsors for this exhibit are Red Hook Art Project and Arts Gowanus.
Technical Notes
My work is a combination of experimental photographic techniques and hand-applied color. To make the photographic base image, I collage negatives of photographed tattoos with negatives of flora and fauna. For the tattoos, I photograph people’s tattoos with a 4X5″ camera and enlarge the negatives onto larger film in the darkroom. The negatives I use for my imagery of flora and fauna are camera-free. In the darkroom, I project a small object — a flower or a piece of seaweed, for example — onto negative film with my enlarger. I try to allow the shapes to take form in an organic process of discovery, working with various degrees of focus in the final image.
I then combine multiple negatives of tattoos with negatives of flora and fauna. Next, I paint palladium emulsion on handmade translucent Japanese gampi paper. Once the emulsion has dried, I place the negatives on it and top with glass and expose the image outdoors in the sun. It can take mere minutes in the summer or even hours in the winter for the image to form.
Depending on my ideas for each work, I may expose the work again with other negatives or paint it with water colors. Each unique work is process driven. At each stage I decide how the work is communicating.
My Work on Artfare
I have been chosen to be an exhibiting artist on the digital platform “Artfare”, artfare.com/alice-garik
I now have the Iris series which I describe in a previous post and Oak Blossoms on the Artfare site. In the coming weeks I will add more works to be featured on this site.
The artists on Artfare are selected for their professionalism and artistry. Please visit the site when you have a moment.
Three Works in Curated Exhibit in GOS 2021
Yvena Despagne, a curator with Arts Gowanus, has chosen three of my works for “Oc.cu.pied”, an exhibition of art by women. The three works are “Blossoming Oak”, “Can We Breathe?” or “Chimera” and “Into the Earth”. I have used the title “Chimera” as an alternate title for this work as in Greek mythology chimeras were human hybrids with appendages from the natural world. Here this woman is growing blossoming Oak branches as she gives birth to her baby. Dates are October 16 and 17, the same timing as the Arts Gowanus Open Studios. Atelier Canal, 287 Third Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11215 is the location.
Framing my work finishes the work for me. The photograph here is the work “Can We Breathe” in its frame, ready to exhibit. I have given this work this name because we live in an interdependent state with trees. Through photosynthesis, trees transform carbon dioxide into oxygen which we breathe. This work is collaged from printing negatives of a woman, a baby and the blossoming oaks with palladium on Japanese gampi paper. I painted with Kremer pearlescent water color to add the dimension of green for leaves and red for our blood.
