Soot and Soul

1. The Hemlock Suite

July 2012 - October 2015

"The work of a printmaker moves between the extremes of soot and soul, between the stain of ink and transcendence. The journey is through a landscape of carbon and soot, with the triumphant soul captured in the grime of ink."

Soot and Soul consists of four series excecuted on large panels of Formica. The Hemlock Suite, part one, features the different seasons of the hemlock plant. As lethal as it is beautiful, with its white billowing umbels, it thrives in that threshold zone  where life rubs up against darkness."

Part II: After the Storm

Part III: Raptus

Part IV: Midway

Size: 57" x 27"

Medium: oilpaint, lithographic ink, graphite on Formica panel. Scarring by levigator.

Soot and Soul. The Hemlock Suite 1


Soot and Soul. The Hemlock Suite 2

Soot and Soul. The Hemlock Suite 3


Soot and Soul. The Hemlock Suite 4

Soot and Soul. The Hemlock Suite 5


Soot and Soul. The Hemlock Suite 6


Soot and Soul. The Hemlock Suite 7


Photograph taken on May 11, 2013 late in the day at  the beach of Etretat in France. The pebbles and cliffs are limestone, the matrix stone of lithography. This image became the source of inspiration for the Hemlock Suite.

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