RECURRING THEMES

This piece was done in the mid- 1980s. Artists were just beginning to try new technology, and I had a new Canon Copier. Using the copier as a camera, I made copies of my printmaking apron, my pretty crocheted homemaker's apron, pictures of my lady shoes, and of my printmaker's boots which I wore in my studio. I was torn between being a wife, mother, and artist, and wanted in some ways to cut the apron strings. The mother bird with the brood was symbolic of needing to care for family needs first. The Window was hand drawn, and not from my own home.

Once the copies were made on acid free rice paper, I cut the pieces out and they were arranged into the composition. I then adhered the image to rag paper in the press, using a printmaking technique known as chine colle.  Because images are brought together and adhered to one surface, it is both a collage and a montage.

I think it is interesting how themes in one's work can keep coming up at different times. Right now,
I am fascinated with windows, and reflections in glass. There were no reflections of interiors or of the outside landscape in the image below, although it is a window. If I were to repeat this image now, I might show it from the outside looking in, with reflections of other images superimposed on the outside of the glass.

I noticed while blogging on my Mixed Media Abstract Art blog, that the imagery shown, although abstract,  reminds me of a landscape reflected from the outside of a picture window. Although I love abstraction, I also love realistic imagery because of things I want to say.

Apron Strings. Chine Colle. Image 14x17"                                    © by Ruth Zachary

All Images and Writing are the Copyright  © of Ruth Zachary and are not to be reproduced without written permission from the Artist/ Author.