Growing up I visited a number of Native American sites in the Pacific Northwest that contained pictograms (cave paintings) and petroglyphs (rock carvings). While taking an Art History class in college I saw a 15,000-year-old painting of a group of warriors, found in a cave in Spain. I noticed there were similarities across cultures in how prehistoric artists depicted their environment, and how they expressed their world.
I wanted to replicate these symbols on surfaces that also resemble the cave or rock on which they were carved or painted. So I developed a painting and texturing technique that mimicked stone or rock. Using large art paper, I painted, textured, and then hand-ripped these into smaller pieces, arranging them to appear as a rock wall; later into whole landscapes.
In order to accurately represent the ancient artwork, I created linocut reliefs that I used to “print” images onto the textured surfaces. I would then add more texture and even gold leaf to become sculptural reliefs that stand out against the backdrop of the surface.
As you look at an “Origins” piece, you can see three unique perspectives: 1) overlooking a geographic location from above; 2) looking eye-level at the paintings or carvings, and; 3) looking up, as if to the sky. Each perspective represents how the prehistoric artist viewed their world and interpreted what they saw and experienced.
