Springbok

"Bushman woman in alley" etching

When growing up I believed that South Africa went "through me, like a thread through a needle, everything I (did was) stitched by (its) color."  From the more narrow perspective of a 20 year old this seemed true, until I met South Africans first hand.  I recognized too many years separated them from me and the fabric of who I was what far more complex.  An imagist is always looking for an iconography that encapsulates an experience, place, or time. At this early stage of my art making stumbling onto the image of the bushman was particularly effective icon for me.  The woman standing in the midst of the alleyway and electrical lines spoke of mine, and Linda's, arrival in Vancouver.  We stepped into a strange urban-scape our suburban upbringing was unprepared for. The woman naked, separate, alien was a voice for my own isolation.  Making a drypoint was a liberating technique that matched where and who I was. After Bob Steele threw away my fist attempt at a print I was given a piece of copper and a scribe.  Turning heads in the library I tore away at the surface as I created my first print "Woman by board."  But when I later turned to the Bushman the technique and the imagery were well aligned.   

"Woman by board" and "Bushman woman(study)" etchings