The seen and unforeseen of life

I live in a university town. I am continually aware of the predictable changes in life — graduations from high school and college, weddings and first jobs. People move in and out of our town with regularity. Other changes — a surprise award, an illness or a job loss — are not so expected. And their results not so predictable.

Elizabeth Busey. Unforeseen. Linoleum Reduction Print 25 x 17 in, 2013.

My latest print, Unforeseen, deals with the parts of nature that are not predictable. Glacial streams result when the angle of the land is overwhelmed with water and sediment. Usually streams and rivers will cut a deeper or wider path when a larger volume of water occurs. Here, the milky, sediment-filled water forces the stream into beautiful, complex braids.

My challenge in this print was to convince the viewer that they were looking at a receding stream bed. The screen images doesn’t capture the color change of the main stream, which was made by a compilation of four gradations of color. After these were created, I carved away the active stream bed.

These streams are also made up of the “ghost” streams of the previous path of the water. I had to create an entire “ghost” stream, and transfer this image to my block. After carving away this stream path, I used gradating colors to further emphasize the misty distance.

I loved the creation of this print, because I was literally carving away my design, just as the water carves away the glacial outwash.

If you are in the Indianapolis area this weekend, be sure to come by and see this print and my other new work at the Broad Ripple Art Fair. The fair runs:
Saturday, May 18th (10am – 5pm) and Sunday, May 19th (10am – 5pm).