Holly Downing
PAINTER and PRINTMAKER
Drapery is universal, and depending on how it is rendered, can express any emotion or culture. And I see how the emotion embodied in the drapery rendering can carry the painting’s content.
Textiles represent and express lifestyles, beliefs and values as well as the wisdom of the respective indigenous culture, from which we can learn a lot!
Besides their universality, there is mystery and great beauty in the light and shadows. They also embody the realm of the “liminal”, those in-between, sacred spaces where poets reside.
Images of wildfires can be surprisingly beautiful at times, while at the same time, they represent heartbreaking devastation. This contradiction is at the heart of “Terrible Beauty”, an art genre dear to my heart.
The luscious, velvety blacks and subtle grays seduced me as a college student, and ever since. The process is meditative, and though arduous and very slow, a nice antidote to our hurried, increasingly technological world.
The seductive intimacy of a handmade artist book, with image and text has long attracted me. The look and feel of the paper, the letterpress type, and velvety mezzotint ink and watercolor are not reduced by a layer of glass. Plus there is a historical connection to the storied past of handmade books