STARTA II: Manifesting Through the Layers
"With layers of monoprint, drypoint and detailed painting, each layer through the printing press informs the execution of the next. As a symbolist, each layer imbues consequential meaning, ultimately, creating a collapsed narrative of historical and current signifiers. Finally, representing the influence of past mythos and current conspiracy theories' effects on contemporary social and political ideologies that impact humanities neglectful relationship of the natural world."
Stephanie Kolpy
"As a child, my art beginnings organically drew me to watercolor painting as I was intuitively fascinated with the thin transparent layers of color and the beautiful mix of colors achieved. As time went on I grew to realize how the aspects and colors of ‘light’ touched my spirit/soul in the act of the creation of art. Through the use of various materials, my work comes directly from sensations felt through personal experience especially relating to all things ‘nature’ – the earth and the cosmos. A gradual spiritual connection with both the invisible and visible environment has brought a deep awareness of my inner and outer landscape. Whether we call it ‘beauty’ or the ‘sublime’, this is where my work finds a home."
Cathy Breslaw
"As a pioneer in contemporary photomontage, each piece of artwork I create tells a story by pushing beyond the boundaries of medium into mythology using traditions of research, synthesis and reinterpretation. I employ these visionary practices to tell the untold stories of women and the natural world; helping to heal ancestral wounds. Layering pieces I have collected from my original photography and paintings, found images, ancestral documents and collected ephemera, I create photographic mixed media pieces with translucent veils of narrative and dreamlike symbolism. Einstein said, "People who believe in physics know that the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion." My work represents these layers of time and memory bleeding through one another to create a thinly-veiled liminal space where our ancestors and ourselves can reunite, creating new mythologies for the future."
Linda Plaisted
"The concept of layers and fragments speak more telling or truthfully to the human experience than the seemingly whole."
Bryon Draper
Arduinna by Bryon Draper
"When air is charged with moving energy, leaves appear to twist and change directions. The overlapping phenomena of layers predict new formations, and brushstrokes of color are born, mimicking the fluidity of nature. Is this a renewal?"
Maria Botti Villegas
Artist Maria Botti Villegas, "Ventoso" flanking a new iteration, "What is to see"
"As a collage artist, layering of materials is an essential component of my process. I am endlessly fascinated by what lies beneath, behind, and beyond surfaces, especially in works of art, but also what lives underneath the things people say and do, situations we find ourselves in, the complex worlds of communities and politics. These mysterious elements inform my work."
Chris Cinque
"Collage is by nature a medium of layers, not just with regard to the physical accretion of materials, but also through the layering of differing contexts, histories, and purposes implied by each individual element's source of origin. I think in this regard, layering in collage reflects so adroitly and powerfully the layers of each person's individual life: the personal histories, experiences, feelings, and ideas we each care with us to any given moment. As humans, we are layered; we are collage."
Rod Boyer
In my darkest night,
when the moon was covered
and I roamed through wreckage,
a nimbus-clouded voice
directed me:
"Live in the layers..."
Excerpt from The Layers
Stanley Kunitz - 1905-2006
Shared by STRATA artist James Richards
"Paintings evolve based on music and memory that may be from years ago. They are all stacked in a mix of thoughts and visual memory. The colors of the waves on Pelican beach and the rocks layering in the sand. I ask the paintings for a title but they tell me to wait until I know it myself."
Kathy Kimball
"My Build, Body, and Bone Series examines the assemblage that occurs as we build upon and around change and loss. Our existence is composed of the many striations we acquire during our own multi-layered process involving vulnerability, reconstruction, regeneration, and growth.This body of work explores and responds to the process of how each layer resides amongst the existence of its prior layer."
Deanna Dorangrichia
I see layers Everywhere!
I see the layers in Society ...
I see layers in Culture ...
I see layers in Nature ...
I see layers in Architecture ...
I see layers in Complexity ...
I see layers in Understanding ...
but as a photographer I love to see beautiful layers in light !
Norman Gabitzsch
"I celebrate the unseen, the sparkle, the wonder. When the night sky darkens into shades of midnight blue and steely gray, there is a moment when the sun’s last breaths streak across the heavens in electric layers. These threads of golden light dance with an energy and power that reveal their magic and mystery. You can almost feel the fire that pierces the sky right before the last light is extinguished."
Ellen Zimmerman
"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass." -a synthesis attributed to Anton Chekov, although his true statement is an even more complex rendering about a method of documenting the evidence of radiance in layered detail."
Britt Block
"The process of working in discrete layers brings depth and history to the piece. Each layer involves a choice that pushes the piece in the direction of the story being told. Everything has layers, often hidden from a cursory glance, that can be revealed upon closer contemplation."
Susan Circone
"Construction of an image on the surface of a paper or canvas is an act of excavating...moving from the base layer up and outward as form and expression merge, mesh, and braid into focus. The ground can glow up from the many veils applied over it, become obliterated or rediscovered in an orchestrated hunt until the image fully emerges. I layer as I draw as much by habit as intention."
Dale Emmart
"The exhibition 'Strata II' really resonated with me. I'm reminded of the layers of experiences in life that make me the person I am today. These experiences may be positive or they may be considered mistakes. When I'm painting and I feel the need to change directions, I transform an image into a new image, leaving some of the old work to show through. Just like some life experiences may have been considered mistakes when in fact they were opportunities to learn and become better. What is created is a rich tapestry of a full life which is reflected in my work."
Michelle Shipka
"Sand to Sky: the space between the earth and the sky, the narrow space that we occupy, that we need to protect and cherish. Sometimes it appears as a vast space above us. Other times, as in sand to sky, the two blend to become one and we feel the closeness above."
Susana Berdecio
“You are the sky...” Pema Chodron
"Like others, I view the human experience as complex and fragile, and ultimately layered. In the collage, mixed media drawing "Attendant," I liken aspects of adulthood to an early prolonged illness when hours and months were spent dutifully cutting out paper dolls from McCall's magazines in search of completeness."
Jack Girard
"One of my favorite material mediums is an already well used canvas. Technique wise, the existing layers inevitably influence the subsequent layers in form, texture and color. When I have it right, the final work is not a series of discrete layers - underneath layers and on-top layers. Rather, it is dynamic and ephemeral; a bit like water. The layers reach up and down and mix and expose themselves depending on the light and wind and who is looking when."
Robin Kerr
“My theatrical and performance background inspires me to connect to self and create characters with dynamic stories in layers. Each layer can hold different memories or emotions; adding them together gives a multidimensional character or narrative. I can build the layers to hide and reveal only what I wish to be seen.”
Leanne Trivett
"Every member of a family has his/her own personal psychological depth. My grandpa's honesty, hard work and kindness were layered right down to his core."
Karen Rothman
"Dynamic layers implies that there is an intentional action of covering or being covered, a sense of movement. Most of my artistic intent is to show that movement of one substance over another, a perceived sense of moving materials."
Dennis Robert
"Since the world is three-dimensional, there are always layers – or the possibility of layers.
For us humans, this layering may be intriguing . . . or daunting, inspiring curiosity or provoking trepidation – but, in any case, layers are the habitat of mystery, the sense that there is more than meets the eye.
My creative process is built on building up layers of paint, and abrading them to create textured surfaces, revealing glimpses of the underlying colors, hints of what lies beneath."
Earl Grenville Killeen
"Layers in my work are similar to pages from travel log."
Bradley Hamerly
"Edmund Husserl founded phenomenology, the study of phenomena. In this
philosophy, every act of consciousness, both sense experiences and
thinking, affects our consciousness, that, in turn, affects our future
experiences. Husserl calls it the “sedimentation of meanings” that
builds up, layer by layer, within our consciousness."
Alec MacLeod
"We need to see that we are all one, like the roots of trees, a stream or a waterfall. We must see, discover and nourish the layers of life itself. My art builds upon images of trees and waterfalls, streams and sunlight with the human spirit, so that we might appreciate our interconnectedness... with each other and with nature." Gail Gelburd
"Below is a photo of me in my studio working on a layered piece.
See the huge pile of hundreds of cut up bits of sheer and translucent fabrics? That is where I draw my inspiration from. Sometimes I’ll spend one day just cutting up fabrics into slivers and small bits, making piles of similar colors.
Then I mix handfuls of colors I’m drawn to, integrating them like I’m making a “tossed salad”. I lay the bits out in layers on a transparent stabilizer before I embroidery them – that’s the exciting part – creating “new” colors I cannot name as they overlap!"
Barbara Murak
Barbara in her studio an her piece, "Crimson Column"
"The layers in this photo and most of my photos occur just by chance, in that my eye sees a pattern and finds it intriguing. So I am drawn to the possibility of presenting layers in a way that might be fascinating. Someone once critiqued some of my photos and said that layers were a bad thing – confusing the eye that seeks a single entity. But I think this time we’ve proved him wrong!"
Janet M. Powers
"I see life as multi-layered. Some layers I definitely enjoy more than others. Nature is definitely one of those layers that has had a strong influence on my artistic life."
Bonnie J. Smith
"The Strata theme is a natural fit for my work, referring to both the technique and the conceptual development of each piece. I have created a material-based vocabulary of paper-types to inspire and develop personal dialogues while I work. I initially build up the form with hundreds of layers of paper to create each sculpture, and then excavate back into the form with knives, saws, grinders, fire and drills to lay bare the striae and striations. Conceptually, my work examines the layering of internal myths and memories to inform our day-to-day life."
Deanne Row
