Memento, recent work

Memento, recent print work by Tammy Ratcliff at Renann Isaacs Contemporary Art November 2 - 25th Please join us for the opening Thursday November 2nd, 6-9pm at 5 Gordon Street, Guelph

Memento The pieces in Memento - hand-pulled prints inspired by observation and memory, photographs, plant clippings and traditional decoration - each represent a souvenir of a significant moment in time for the artist, and collectively serve as a type of personal travelogue of the literal and metaphorical journey she has undertaken over the last year and a half. This journey includes the bittersweet milestone of having one’s child leave home, the exhilaration of a month spent in the Norwegian arctic, and the painful and frustrating experience of confronting personal illness. This body of work represents the arrival at a point of resolution, where the impressions of place and time - some joyful, some painful - have been digested, distilled and given a fresh new airing, aided by the clarity of hindsight and context. Objectively, the works stand as sensitive and thoughtful interpretations of nature, employing varied print techniques to render the expansive sensations and rugged beauty of a landscape, or the more intimate investigation of a botanical study. More subjectively, each is coloured with subtle emotional undercurrents that touch alternately on fear and melancholy, admiration and wonder, and hint at the artist’s desire, and the universal impulse, to make sense of one’s place within these intertwined narratives.

Copyright © *2017, Tammy Ratcliff All rights reserved. the view I, monotype with chine collé Our mailing address is: 123 Woolwich St. 3rd floor Guelph N1H 4E8 I apologize if you received this email in error. You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

Poem & Print with Jane Lind

I am a big fan of Jane Lind's writing and want to share here a poem that she gave me during a session of printmaking lessons I was giving her in my studio a couple of weeks ago.  The poem was

inspired by a work of mine she had purchased from my show 'sweet nothings' at AWOL gallery during Printopolis last Autumn.  The work is titled the same as the poem,

"Memento- from when you were small"

She sits on a patterned red and blue quilt

spread on green grass

where Sweet Williams bloom.

Butterflies- Monarchs

light on the blossoms.

She chortles with pleasure,

reaches out her hand

but the bright wings

disappear.

The butterfly returns

lights on her dress,

wings forever etched in her memory

on a pink organza summer dress.

(by Jane Lind,  2011)