Laura Brown – Characters

LAURA BROWN

LAURA BROWN

characters

7 s ig n s & stripes

23 hills & ho uses

37 t ow er s & containers

48 cv

contents

Characters

“This is unique to the art form of printmaking. . . It is and always has been something in-between other things. . . The real print demands greater discernment and intellectual involvement than what it is in-between: a painting, a sculpture, on the one hand; a drawing, sketch, or visual thought, on the other.”

--Richard Tuttle In-betweenness is a theme that has been with me from the beginning, I think. A fact of my life.

Maybe that is why printmaking is a good fit for me, a person who wants to choose everything all the time. These collages grew out of the most in-between of that printy in-between space: from a pile of test prints left over from my last body of work, and exercises in making intuitive decisions without over-thinking them. Though I employed all my usual routines of making: of cutting shapes out of paper with intuitive snips of my scissors, improvising their arrangements on the page, and printing many layers of colors, lines, and patterns over each other, I did each of these actions in a different order than usual.

Cutting paper and collaging it together has always been my way of building images. A pair of scissors is a more natural tool for me than a pencil or a brush. Though it is a two-dimensional action, with a mostly two-dimensional result, there is a physicality to cutting, it has a relationship to space that drawing doesn’t possess. Ingrid Schaffner calls it “a sculptural gesture”. Typically, I employ collage-making in the planning stages of my image-making, as sketches. The paper shapes are then translated into blocks, plates, or screens before being printed. By the time the print is finished, the viewer might not guess the origins of the image.

With these works, though, I printed first, cut second. One of the best features of printmaking is the ability to produce multiples. With letterpress or screenprinting, creating many, many multiples is both quick and easy, an advantage toward generating a larger volume of work and a greater number of possible variations on an idea or image. As a function of printing an edition, creating many multiples is even necessary. Test prints are a byproduct of this process, often surprising and delightful. To get to the precise series of impressions, a printmaker has to print, make adjustments to screen or paper, and print again. This can happen over and over again until the conditions are just right for printing a consistent image.

1

1 Christina von Rotenhan, “Something In-Between: An Introduction to the Prints of Richard Tuttle” Richard Tuttle Prints (2014) 11: Brunswick, ME

I, as many printmakers do, print these tests on top of each other, letting chance compose for me in the moments before and between making the paper line up perfectly. This process also allows for some measure of play at the beginning but always gives way to more of a feeling of work. In this instance, I let these agents—play, chance, intuition, take over as I dug into my pile of test prints and began cutting. I wanted to generate a lot of them. My tools and materials were the simplest and quotidian: a pair of scissors and a stack of 8.5” x 11” paper. Every once in awhile, a pencil line or series of dots. I thought a lot about the individual in the context of the group, the contrast of those identities, and I began to think of these small compositions as characters: in one way, they are recognizable in some sense, like a strange alphabet. In another sense, they possess personalities, expressive properties, and even a sense of independence and individuality, even as they make up a collection of related scenes and figures.

Writers often talk about their characters as having their own wills that shape a story, and I tend to think about my images in the same way. Not only did they insist on becoming their own selves in the process of creation, but they are also animated in a particular way. Instead of being printed directly onto the surface of the paper, their printed surfaces hover over it, creating subtle shadows and tiny movements. And, just like characters in a story, they become friends who afford entre into a miniature landscape of color and who also ARE that landscape, with a touch of personification. In his book The Triggering Town, Richard Hugo talks about a poet’s relationship to language: “. . . your vocabulary is limited by your obsessions. . . Your words used your way will generate your meanings. Your obsessions lead you to your vocabulary.”2 These collages come from my own obsessions with landscape, architecture, memory. This book is an archive, an index of obsessions, and it functions not unlike a collection of poetry. There is both complexity and simplicity throughout, there is repetition, variation, confusion and clarity. These are the characters that make up my vocabulary.3

2 Richard Hugo, The Triggering Town: Lectures and Essays on Poetry and Writing (W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 1979) 15

signs & stripes

sig n s

b rig h t b lue wit h dia mo n ds

9

h a lf ci rc le tr ia n g le

sig n s

pu r ple and pink arrow #1

11

a rr o w s po int in g b o th wa y s

sig n s

13

y e llow tr iang l e pointing down

p in k ar c h wit h go ld g ri d

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g o ld h ill w ith g re e n che ck m ark

s t r i p es

g r ee n hi ll wit h go ld va l le y

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pink cupcake

s t rip ed sc a p e w it h ki ck st a n d

s t r i p es

s tr ipe s with thre e hal f Os

pi nk a n d g o ld w it h W

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p y ra mi d o f h a lf Os

s t r i p es

spiral of hal f Os

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diamonds with le tte r V

la st bl ue s c ap e wi th s t ri p es

s t r i p es

pin k che ck m ark with W

p ur p le o r an g e b lue hill w it h O

hills & houses

hills

pu r ple black m t g re e n fie l d

g re e n a nd c ya n l an ds ca pe

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t il te d bl ue d up l ex on fie ld

hills

b lue hill w it h t in y do t s

27

gr e en an d or a n ge wit h di a mo n d s t ri pe s

hills

p e a ch h il l w it h b lu e

29

s tripe d hil ls with cyan

pe a c h va ll e y wit h g re e n t r e es

hills

or a n ge fie ld wi th V st rip e s

31

bl ue h ill a nd o r an g e c liff w it h kic k st a n d

32

o ra ng e ba rn wi t h bl ue mi rr o r

ho u s e s

a fr ame with we l com e m at

pe a c h ho us e wi th g r e en

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g r e e n g r id h ouse with g re e n fie ld

q uie t g re e n a nd o ra ng e h o u se

ho u s e s

g re e n ho us e w it h b lue fie ld

towers & containers

t o w er s

g ra y t o we r w it h # 7

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p u rp l e a nd g re e n la n dsc a p e w it h s tr ip e s

t o w er s

pu r ple propping up stripe s

bl ue to we r wi th p ink a nd p l ai d f la g s a nd h a lf O

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c at sc a p e

t o w er s

til te d split towe r

43

s t rip ed mo u nd wit h sma l l t a il

44

e nve lope

t in y st r ip e d bo a t

co n t a i ne r s

su n da e sc a p e

46

tiny ne we st cyanotype

la ye r ed g re e n g ri d t o w e r

co n t a i ne r s

blu e pu rpl e ye ll ow boatscape

p ur p le s hip s c a p e

cv LAURA BROWN | laurabrownart@gmail.com born Johannesburg, RSA; lives in Austin, Texas EDUCATION 2017 MFA Candidate, Studio Art, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX (anticipated) 2004 BS in Studio Art, Printmaking emphasis, Magna Cum Laude Northwestern College, St. Paul, MN PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY 2014–present Teaching Assistant: 2D Foundations, Beginning Screenprinting, Intermediate & Advanced Screenprinting, Introduction to Intaglio, Intermediate & Advanced Intaglio, Intermediate Lithography, Letterpress Printing University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 2012–2014 Instructor: Introduction to Relief Printmaking, Letterpress 1, Collagraphs and Alternative Intaglio Tech niques, Writing for Artists | Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minneapolis, MN 2011–2014 Member, Artist Co-operative | Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minneapolis, MN 2010 Intern, Cave Paper | Minneapolis, MN 2003 Intern, Ah Haa School for the Arts | Telluride, CO SOLO JURIED + INVITATIONAL EXHIBITIONS 2014 Object Permanence | Phipps Center for the Arts, Hudson, WI 2013 Fly Over | MacRostie Art Center, Grand Rapids, MN Laura Brown: New Work | Copper Country Community Art Center, Hancock, MI 2012 The Twilight Zone: Recent Prints by Laura Brown | Women’s Studio Workshop, Rosendale, NY 2011 Laura Brown: Posters and Prints | Mitrebox Gallery, Minneapolis, MN SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2015 Parallels | 60 Orange Street, Providence, RI 2015 Revolution Now | Gamut Gallery, Minneapolis, MN Parts of a Whole: New Work from MCBA’s Community | Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minneapolis, MN 2014 The Here There | Some Sum Studios & Lyon Smith Gallery, Winona, MN The Art of the Book | Phipps Center for the Arts, Hudson, WI 2013 .918 Letterpress Ephemera Show | Samford University, Birmingham, AL Circle Works: Selected Works from Cave Paper | Morgan Conservatory, Cleveland, OH Trading Places | Cowles Literary Commons Gallery, Open Book, Minneapolis, MN; Honolulu Printmakers, Honolulu, HI Parts of a Whole: New Work from MCBA’s Community | Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minneapolis, MN DIY Printmaking: Presses Not Required | Minnesota Museum of American Art Project Space, St. Paul, MN 2012 The Art of the Book | The Anderson Center, Red Wing, MN; Copper Country Community Art Center, Hancock, MI Artcrank Minneapolis | Various Locations, Minneapolis, MN Insolvent: A Printmaking Show | Big Table Studio, St. Paul, MN 2011 Artcrank Minneapolis | Various Locations, Minneapolis, MN Parts of a Whole: New Work from MCBA’s Community | Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minneapolis, MN 2009 Examining the Fine Print | Center for the Visual Arts, Wausau, WI 2008 Map of the World Print | Mid-America Print Council Conference, Fargo, ND 2007 Midwest Sanctuary | Altered Esthetics Gallery, Minneapolis, MN 2006 Kala Artists’ Exhibition | Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, California Insular Origins Print Exchange and Exhibition | Mid-America Print Council Conference, Athens, OH 2005 4 Amerikanske Grafikere (4 American Printmakers) | Smia Galleri, Kristiansand, Norway RESIDENCIES 2010 Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minneapolis, MN 2006 Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA 2005 Myren Graffikk, Kristiansand, Norway 2004 Myren Graffikk, Kristiansand, Norway

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COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS 2013 Collaborations in Printmaking: Creation, publication and exhibition of prints with photographer Nadine Gross and painter/collage artist Amy Crickenberger Oeth Life Sized Book Project: Community printmaking workshops, publication and exhibition of a “life-sized book” in collaboration with papermaker Bridget O’Malley and ArtShare Northeast PUBLIC LECTURES 2015 A Creative Sphere: Artists-in-Residence | Southern Graphics Council International Conference, Knoxville, TN AWARDS 2015 The Mort Baranoff Endowed Scholarship Isabell Smith Herzstein Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Art Lucas Foundation Scholarship 2014 David Bruton, Jr. Endowment for Graduate Fellowship Emily Maverick Miller and Emily Miller Wells Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Art 2012 Arts in Education Book Arts Residency Grant | Women’s Studio Workshop, Rosendale, NY SELECTED COLLECTIONS Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA Indiana University, Bloomington, IN James K. Hosmer Special Collections, Hennepin County Library, Minneapolis, MN James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA Library of Congress, Washington, DC Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY University of Delaware, Newark, DE University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA Women’s Studio Workshop, Rosendale, NY Yale University, New Haven, CT Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA

This catalogue is the outcome of a collaborative 8-week project, titled Open Book/Open Studio, between 7 Studio Art graduates, 10 Design undergraduates, and 1 Advertising graduate. Open Book/Open Studio afforded each Studio Artist the opportunity to reflect on work produced during residency, and afforded each Designer the opportunity to give typographic and visual expression to this reflection.

Participants include: Anthony B. Creeden, Laura Brown, Maddie George, Nora Greene, Kendall Hannah, Ryan Hawk, Samantha Hicks, Emily Jarvis, Jacqueline (Jac) Juengst, Moses Lee, Zachary Meisner, Bucky Miller, Michael Muelhaupt, Judy Oh, Savannah Schy, Jenny Seh, Rachael Starbuck, Hailey Williams.

This catalogue is published in conjunction with courses Ante Chamber led by Jack Risley, and Typography II led by Cassandra Cisneros; The University of Texas at Austin, Department of Art and Art History Designed and produced between March 4–April 27, 2016 Designed by Kendall Hanna and Emily Jarvis Typeset in Scala and Scala Sans (Martin Majoor, 1993) Printed and bound in San Antonio by SmithPrint