listening rock

"listening rock", graphite, watercolor, colored pencil, letterpress blind embossing on paper. framed 12 in. x 13 in.

Hi,

I just got home from a teaching day and plunked myself down. Whew. I started looking at some images of the work I will have in the Incredible Print Show at artstream and thought I'd offer a little bit of what I was thinking when I made this piece.

"Listening rock" is about the friend, or the one that is always there for you, ready to listen; they are a listening rock. For the watercolor portion in the bottom, I looked at the shapes and tones of some small stones that belonged to my grandmother, and glaze drippings that i would collect as a girl from my dad's kiln shelves. The hovering ovoid shape is made of layers of colored pencil {inspired by the paper I keep on my work table for sharpening my pencils} surrounded by letterpress embossed brackets. I use the brackets to allude to sound, quietness or listening as I did in my {whisper} series. The last element I added to the piece was the tiny letterpress ornament in the top left.

For the Incredible Print Show I decided I would incorporate various media together including letterpress printing to make original, one-of-a-kind pieces. There is so much variety in the show it seems, I think it will be awesome.

Thank you for listening, :)
H