Issue #20 (2011) PDF - myweb - Long Island University

Constance Woo
PHOTOGRAPHS OF MIXED-MEDIA IMAGES
Artist’s Statement, April 2011
A committed detritivore, I use low-tech processes and quotidian materials meant for the trash bin:
pencil shavings, tea leaves, newspapers, comics, burlap scraps, pages from dilapidated children‘s
books, pictures from magazines.
Half of the works included in this issue date from the last seven months; the other half from the last
few years. For all of the works, I used a free-hand, impromptu approach, bypassing sketches, drafts
or measurements, as opposed to the methods I‘ve used in past years to produce artist‘s books, which
require careful calculations and crafting. Most of the pieces were executed as classroom exercises,
often taking a desultory path before completion. The image on the front cover, a spur-of-themoment
test of an air-brush and whatever images were at hand, was a piece of detritus meant to be
thrown away, which I recently found under a pile of scraps while foraging for paper. Some pieces
happened by accident, such as Item #3. Carried away by a Japanese punch, I recalled the line from
Keats, ―with beaded bubbles winking at the brim,‖ several weeks after finishing it. The ink and
manuscript piece (Item #5) materialized from an exercise on drawing lines as shapes and doodling
with a calligraphy pen. Items #6 and #7 were made from left-over scraps of Japanese papers and
inspired by the work of Rakuko Naito, who creates texture from folded paper.
These images appear on the following eight, unnumbered pages.
1. Landscape. Vintage floral stamens woven on burlap. Detail of original. 12 in. x 31 in. The
floral landscape is oriented horizontally; rotate the page 90 degrees to view. 2009
2. Paper Detritus. Discarded library catalog cards. 2-3/4 in. x 5 in. Postcard. 3-1/2 in. x 5-1/2 in.
Collage, pastels. 2009
3. Untitled. Tea bags, newspaper. Detail of original. 10-3/4 in. x 16-3/4 in. 2009
4. Untitled. Pencil shavings, rubber stamping on handmade paper. 8 in. x 12 in. 2010
5. Exercise on Line. Ink & collage on drawing paper. Detail of original. 12 in. x 18 in. 2010
6. Untitled. Tea paper on Japanese paper. Close-up of original. 8-3/4 in. x 13 in. 2010
7. Untitled. Ink, watercolor, various Japanese papers on handmade paper. 8-3/4 in. x 12 in. 2010
8. Quilt. Mixed media on muslin. Detail of original. 13-1/2 in. x 18 in. 2011
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