LYSIS, 2014

For this series of 20 silk screens on archival pigment prints I explored how our reading and understanding of a small section of a log changes as layers are added, removed, and overlayed in different ways. I see these variations in visual representation as analogous to the different lenses we use to look at pieces of the world around us. What do we see, and what can we not see when we look at the world through narrow disciplinary perspectives and inquiry?
I created this series of silk screens on archival pigment prints in collaboration with master printmaker Sheila Goloborodko, my generous colleague and friend. Thank you, Sheila!

Andrea Frank: Lysis

"In the time before, the world was resilient, beautiful, and strong. It happened through the magic of blood flowing through capillaries, and the magic of tiny seeds turning into giant redwoods, and the magic of long relationships between rivers and mountains, and the magic of complex dances between all members of natural communities. It took life and death, and the gifts of the dead, forfeited to the living, to make the world strong."
-Derrick Jensen
When I Dream of a Planet in Recovery

Andrea Frank captures the images of minute natural changes in the forest. Focused on an uprooted tree, a leaf, some bark and moss, she reveals what sustains and surrounds us, an interconnected ecosystem and its immeasurable power and magnitude.

Large, archival pigment prints are digitally composed and at times scratched or hand colored. Images of woodland breathe change and survival as the work shows elegance even in the images of decay that beseech our attention, and help.

We read the residual images of a forest as pieces of a lost palimpsest, as we immerse ourselves in the voyage to what is left of our once natural environment. Minimal, but with keen and meticulous vision, no color is picked to embellish the image, but to call attention, to signal danger, to direct focus. In another series, water based inks are screenprinted over the seemingly fluid stroke of minuscule droplets of ink that make up the photographic images. At times, these overprints create shadow, transparency, or the simple geometry of a flat surface of color.

What is shown here is all magic, like the force that made the forest and the magic that helps to rebuild it.

Sheila Goloborotko