BOTANICALS AND OTHER MUSINGS

A two person exhibition of artists Eve Laxer and David Tankersley

Eve Laxer This series of botanical monoprints was created over the course of an extremely challenging year following the death of my son, who fought a long and courageous battle with cancer. When he breathed in his final breath, I lost myself in the darkness of unthinkable anguish and sorrow. Over time I was able to slowly move toward my familiar refuges in the land of the living; one being the woods, the natural world, and the other, the creative interior space.

Fall colors were appearing, the air was crisp and the sky was azure blue. I enrolled in a workshop on the use of botanicals in printmaking. The pre-class assignment to find the leaves, vines, and plant matter helped me focus on my continuing mantra  which had been to notice the beauty. It showed up in the shapes of southern red, white, post and chestnut oaks, in mimosa pods, in the magnificent detail of gingko leaves and the grande Chinese parasols. I found beauty in the transformation from fresh new growth to the process of decay and in the markings left on leaves from the meal of an insect. An insatiable curiosity served me well in the spontaneous process of creating monoprints by hand and with an etching press. I became immersed in experimenting with vegetation of all kinds, the textures of different inks, the feel of a cotton rag paper or the translucence of fine Japanese papers.

The process of creating this body of work was one of unexpected healing and finding a new footing; working within a community of other printmakers has been the bonus.