Scurograph: Photograms and Drawings at Massillon Museum

I’m thrilled to have a solo exhibition at Massillon Museum’s Studio M from June 11 through July 27, 2022.

The Museum will host a free, public reception on Saturday, July 25, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., with an artist talk at 6:00 p.m. A podcast interview with me will be posted at MassillonMuseum.org at noon on Tuesday, July 5.

Evocative of watery depths, imaginary galaxies, and mysterious maps, these luminous images create an immersive dimension with their own logic and rules of scale and space.  As in dreams, my imagery seems familiar but weird; letters that don’t exist, math that doesn’t add up, and mutated forms floating in dark space.  Like blueprints (which were in fact an early use of the cyanotype process), these images resemble intricate, mechanical drawings.  But instead of buildings or machines, I’m laying out the plans for imaginary locations and strange mechanisms. 

These  artworks are rooted in drawing, starting out as small sketches where I develop my concepts, motifs, and patterns.  For the photograms, I use stencils, miscellaneous bric-a-brac, and hand-drawn “negatives” to serve as an analog to the lines and marks of the original drawings.  Those bits and pieces are then laid out on  coated, sensitized paper to create  glowing reversed shadows and lines.  In some of the  artworks, I integrate drawing directly onto the paper before it’s sensitized, creating an extra layer of detail, with the ink acting both as a chemical resist and as literal marks.  Since  this is a reversal process, one must  visualize how solid objects leave white shadows, translucent objects leave shades of color, and negative space takes on the deep cyan once the image is exposed and washed.  The large drawings bring the process full circle, drawing  inspiration from the photograms, recreating those patterns again with ink on paper.

Exhibitions can be seen during regular MassMu hours, Tuesday through Saturday 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Sunday 2:00 to 5:00 p.m., and during extended hours from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. on the last Saturday of each month in collaboration with downtown Massillon’s Last Saturday event.

MassMu is located at 121 Lincoln Way East in downtown Massillon. A visit is always free. Free parking is available on adjacent streets and in nearby city lots. For more information, call 330-833-4061 or visit massillonmuseum.org.

Feather Knot
2022
silver gelatin photogram (diptych)