Today's Feature: Watt & Shand #3

Today's feature as I count down the days, and count up the series, is Watt & Shand #3. (I'm skipping #2, it's been sold and will not be part of this exhibit, but you can see it here.) At this point in the series I wanted to try further abstracting some images. I chose two pictures from July 2008 that had strong lines, tweaked them digitally, and had themofax screens prepared from them.

A thermofax screen works basically like a silkscreen; you pull paint over the screen to print an image. I printed on white cotton sateen and natural linen fabrics, and I made extra prints to cut up and use in the patchwork. Most of the fabrics here are ones I painted or printed myself.

In the color scheme I am still referencing the oranges, neutrals and blues of the previous works, but I'm also bringing in the greens of summer. Lancaster is a very green city, literally, there are a lot of street trees, as recognized by its status as a Tree City USA for 32 years, and many homes and business have flower boxes and planters. I also added darker browns to reference the soil; life here, even in the city, is never far from our farming and gardening heritage.

Here's one of the pictures I worked with for #3. The scaffolding is down, giving an unobstructed view of the facade, and the new interior is beginning to take shape, but the windows are still empty and intriguing. It's that mildly unsettling and exciting sense of the unknown that I was working to capture in the prints and in the work as a whole. The stopped clock is a bonus. It was restored and is now a working feature of the hotel.

A repeat of the scheduling details: the opening reception is on the 19th, there's a special reception on the 25th, and a First Friday reception on April 2, all at the Lancaster Arts Hotel Gallery. I hope to see you there!