Printmaking exhibit opens at Tait gallery
By Shari Kaplan
Under the exhibit title of Marking Time/Making Space, the members of the eclectic artists' group, Silicon Valley Printmakers, are showing a variety of monotypes through Dec. 29, at the Los Gatos Museum of Art and Natural History, 4 Tait Ave., in Los Gatos.
The group formed in 1996 with the mission of pushing and stretching the boundaries of traditional printmaking. Currently, the SVP numbers nine women: Barbara Abbott of San Jose, Sandra Beard of Sacramento, Kate Curry of Cupertino, Yeung Ha of Los Altos, Ellen Kieffer of Saratoga, Valerie Magee of San Jose, Judith Juntura Miller of Palo Alto, Grace Purpura of San Jose and Mercy Smullen of Los Gatos.
"During our recent meeting, we noticed a common concept appearing in our work, which dealt with time and space," their collective artists' statement explains. "Perhaps evaluation and examination of time and its existence in space is more present for us as we move into a new century."
Another common bond among them is the fact that all of the works are mixed-media monotypes. A monotype is a single print created by transferring to paper an image that has been formed on a plate of plastic, metal, glass or some other flat surface. The images are usually transferred with a press, although artists may also hand-rub them. Monotypes can be as simple or as elaborate as their creators wish, especially when other elements join the mix.
Such is the case with Ha's Twelve Days of the Millennium series, of which the museum displays January through April. For each, Ha includes newspaper front pages bearing important headlines from the first of the month, a snapshot of herself in action (from teaching children art to brushing her teeth), pieces of maps and painted tree branches that change from bare in January to leafy and green in April. Each work also contains its own unique elements, such as a Super Lotto ticket stub, a handprint and plastic animal figurines.
Like Ha, Curry has favorite elements she includes in her works as well, such as a mélange of irregularly ripped scraps of material along with carefully formed squares and rectangles. Among these, which can be seen in works such as Celestial Occurrence and On the Fence, Sometimes Not ..., are pieces of iridescent foil, hand-painted papers, recycled paper fibers and colorful fabric swatches.
Although it was the Raven that quoth "nevermore," it is a blackbird that reminds the viewer of its presence in Smullen's series of four works, including Eleventh Hour and Looking at a Blackbird. All incorporate the bird's dark silhouette, black feather imprints, images of timepieces and metallic tones of gold, silver and copper.
The most colorful and varied of the exhibit's mixed-media monotypes is Abbott's The Passage, a large canvas composed of a collage of squares similar to a patchwork quilt. Unlike a quilt, however, this patchwork includes such items as a wooden nickel, a seed packet, a dog charm, newspaper clippings and handwritten notes. Joining these are painted squares depicting fruits, flowers, marbles and seashells, among other things.
Additional interesting monotypes include Miller's Points in Time and Space, Beard's Etruscan series, Kieffer's MT/MS series, Purpura's Buddhas Past, Present and Future ,and Magee's There Will Be Opened a Gateway.
The Los Gatos Museum of Art and Natural History is at 4 Tait Ave. Hours are noon to 4 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday. For information, call 408.354.2646.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
