Gallery Artists: Gail Erwin

The historic photographic processes of Van Dyke Brown and Cyanotype form a core of my recent work. The use of these 19th century techniques gives images a sense of history and the passage of time. An early photographic use of cyanotype was to create images of ferns and other natural objects. In keeping with this early use of cyanotype, I have combined photograms of flowers, grasses and sticks and stones with photographs of trees and rocks to create imaginary landscapes.

Handmade paper is another essential element of my work. It stands alone or is incorporated into other work. In our day to day lives we take paper for granted, but handmade paper transcends this humble status.

Quartets and Variations is a series of cyanotype and Van Dyke brown images that range from tightly constructed quartets framed together to a wall of various sized images arranged in a seemingly random fashion. In each case they interact as if in conversation or parts of a musical composition with rhythm and harmony. The images reference the landscape and nature. A stand of trees becomes a branch and then devolves into a mysterious abstraction. Images repeat with variations in color or composition. Patterns emerge and flow. Is it the night sky or an underwater scene? There is a recurring map image suggesting a journey. Layers interact.

Mapscape is part map, part landscape. Each of the 500 sheets of handmade paper in the installation is a world unto itself. The assembled grid forms another pattern, another map, another landscape, another world. The grid also suggests an aerial view of the land where landscape and map merge. The installation focuses on pattern, movement and connection; each square to the whole, each individual to the world. In its former incarnation, the viewer could step back and view the whole from a distance. Now, one walks into the space and is surrounded by the work.

Web Site: www.erwinarts.com

Title: Nocturne Wall
Medium: cyanotype
Size: dimensions variable

Title: Quartet 77
Medium: Van Dyke Brown and monoprint
Size: 16 x 16 inches

Title: Mapscape
Medium: Handmade paper and collage
Size: 8 x 8 inch squares, total of 8' high by 47' wide

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