Welcome

Artist Statement

Memory is subjective—it is affected by who is viewing, and in how we remember. It is intangible, and therefore changeable. Memory is subject to how each individual or mechanical representation captures a particular point in time, generating an echo of the original event—a memory. These exist only in the mind, but in some ways we also attach them to particular objects—a scent, or a keepsake that has personal meaning. This echo is what intrigues me at present. Because I am a printmaker and a photographer, I have been using the camera as an alternate means of recording objects and as a drawing tool. Some drawings have been informed by photos, while others are informed by recollection alone. The camera records an ephemeral truth of the photographic word, but does not see things the way the human eye does. I feel further manipulation of the plate is necessary rather than printing the photos simply as they are. By working further into the plate I hope to allow them to show a deeper truth. Using the process of sugar lift transfers as a starting point, I've then been drawing back into the plate with aquatint, hardground and spit bite, and reworking the plate to etch the images. In this way they become a step removed, and allow a new perspective. The photos are transformed by the printmaking processes, becoming something more than the original image, as they are translated step by step.

The images I am currently working with are less about the original found object that was photographed than about the echoes of its presence felt within the image. I have been working with how the camera and myself generate these remembered images differently, using photos as a starting point and then drawing back into them and bringing my own hand into the image, reworking the plate and allowing the image to grow. I have also begun creating objects to be photographed, based on memories of other objects no longer present, or no longer whole. There is a thin barrier between the object and the viewer, obscuring the original object further and differentiating inner, outer, and personal spaces. I want to make the viewer simultaneously feel the presence of an object beyond their view, and to feel that sense of presence as well as understand that it is there, though there may be no immediate access to it. I don't believe that the knowledge of what is being shown explicitly is necessary—it is enough to feel that this presence is, or was, once there.

—Kelsey Stephenson