Empty Dresses

For me, printmaking has been a way to explore the numerous ways a single image can be handled. The process of being able to churn out identical (or at least similar) images has given me the chance to see an image from a wide array of viewpoints. I can isolate the influence color and repetition has over a certain image. In this way, I can produce images much faster than i can with paint. The speed of printmaking allows me to test new ideas and study the context different treatments of an image can inspire.

The multiple form of printmaking has come in pretty handy when it comes to building a collage. I love repetition. Being able to print numerous "copies" of the same thing gives me breathing room and the safety to experiment with ideas: if i mess up, i can always print another, and not with wasting much time.

However, as a painter, i am still quite fond of the one-of-a-kind image... an idea of preciousness that i am trying to reconcile. Nevertheless, i use printmaking to make work that i cannot easily replicate and that will never have an identical. In the case of the Empty Dresses collage, every image of the dress was pulled from the same block, but the piece itself is unique. There is only one, and the crocheted boarder (hours of work!) insures that i won't be tempted to make an edition out of it.

In the making of this piece, i was concerned with "craft" and what that word implies. The more theory i read, the more convinced i become that craft has become hated in art simply because the word implies a feminine attribute. Until i went to art school, any time i heard the word "craft" i immediately thought of little old ladies making doilies and housewives decorating cakes. I thought of cross stitching, knitting, crocheting, and sewing. I thought of objects that were purely decorative, that were intended to be such, and contained no further meaning.

This connotation is still very much alive and well. Craft is seen as low and kitschy, a form of expression undertaken by uneducated people. Historically, the uneducated have been the poor and women.

In this piece I'm beginning to deal with the fact that craft is hated purely because of its connection with the feminine. It is seen as silly and frivolous, much in the same way that women are still viewed.

Here, the image of the dress signifies the feminine, but at the same time, the dress is empty. The empty dress points to an empty (incorrect) idea of what it is to be female, and the crocheted boarder stands in contrast to the masculine attribute of the printing press.

The images themselves are printed with black ink on white paper. The piece as a whole is constructed from opposites as a means to question the validity of our cultural and historical understanding of what it means to be masculine or feminine.

There is a saying that goes something like this: a woman knows she is a good painter when her work is mistaken as being made by a man. This adage illustrates our cultural, and the art world's, hatred of the feminine. Somehow, hiding femininity in art is a good thing. personally, i disagree. Women have been the makers of amazingly powerful, hard hitting, challenging, conceptual art for a long time now and they've done so without hiding their gender. i would think that in art, at least, there is a place where an individual is free to assert them self and talk about their experiences... or am i still too idealistic?

It is my contention that "craft" can be used to make fine art. Traditional methods, such as cross stitch and crochet, can be implemented to make a contemporary critique of social issues, demands, and roles... and the combination of new and old is, for me, exciting and worthwhile.