Stephanie Mahan Stigliano
Recent Work: Drawings and Prints
Man Vs, Animal is a visual record of animals encountered while traveling by car. Speeding at 75 mph, we have drive-by glimpses of the natural world. The great blue heron was initially developed as an image of hope but was reworked after the oil disaster of spring 2010 in Louisiana. We relentlessly press forward into the future until our tanks are empty. The car we are driving in our one point perspective travels to oblivion in this oil-soaked vision.
Recent Work: Drawings and Prints
Julia, Three color linocut, 12 x 16," 2011
Key and Magnolia, Drawing, 6 x 9,” 2010
Key and Magnolia, Reduction linocut, 6 x 9,” 2010
Bleeding Heart, Drawing, 6 x 9,” 2010
Bleeding Heart, Reduction linocut, 6 x 9,” 2010
The act of drawing connects the eye, the hand, the tool and the mark on the paper. What is perceived is directly recorded. At its best, drawing is an intuitive and immediate response to the world.
Reworking a drawing into a print transforms the work. The building of marks reveals the physicality of the process. In a reduction linocut, the block is used multiple times in one print. It is recut (reduced) after each successive color is printed. Sometimes this is called Kamikaze printmaking because the printer cannot go back and fix mistakes due to the destructive nature of the process. Made popular by Pablo Picasso, this method adds an unpredictable element.