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international drawing annual 8 exhibition-in-print
online resource





Amy Herzel
Keller, Texas


ppunderbird@gmail.com

www.pseudopompous.com



detail image

statement

What is the architecture of an experience?  What if we could allow our sub-conscious to map out the structure of a personal experience and that map looked like an exoskeleton or an organism?  I am a woman, a mother raising two sons, a wife with a husband just back from working in a foreign war. I am an art educator, an Asian American and an artist. Each of my roles/identities is tied to choices and struggles with issues in this contemporary society.  What if the process of my struggles in this society and age became corporeal as an organism?

When scientists examine the structure and contour of an organism they can hypothesize about its nature or habitat. They may even examine the evidence and conclude how the creature lived. My micro- drawings; the residue of my subconscious exploration are left behind like a series of shells, fossils or molted remains which give evidence of an evolution or transformation.

I begin each micro-drawing with a meditation on my most present struggle. My process is intuitive, but rooted in the discipline of drawing.  I allow myself to focus on the moment of a tiny circle or line or shape.   I begin with tiny shapes because I am viscerally aware of the miniscule and I believe that the addition of the miniscule formulate the inevitable structure in a building process similar to DNA. For me every mark represents an acceptable evolution.  I do not edit or consciously plan my drawings and the drawings grow from the center out like the building of a mollusk shell. Without intention or a concrete goal, but rather guided by a sub conscious meditation on a specific personal issue; I draw. This creative process is often uncomfortable as I don't ever know where my drawings are going. I work in a cognitive darkness.  I call them fearless because I must not be afraid of outcomes as I draw, I must trust the process.

Deus Ex Machina Series
This series of prints is derived from my micro-drawings.  The primary drawing began as a meditation on a particular life experience.  The drawing is then photographed and multiplied in a rotating pattern. Because of the detailed nature of the original drawings, the subsequent digital translation is very detailed and complex.  The visual result illustrates the innumerable possibilities of focus and perceptual preference.  The images reflect the spontaneous beauty found in the nature of replication and the system of radial symmetry.

In our personal lives we often can only see one perspective. These images are like revelations of multiple truths only seen when created from the layering of slightly similar perspectives.  It is that singular, but complex voice that materializes as the Deus ex machine

bio

born: 1968, Seoul, Korea

education

Tyler School of Art, M.Ed., 2000
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Certificate of the Fine Arts, Painting, Printmaking, 1997
Binghamton University, BA, 1991

selected awards/honors

Grant and work stipend, Vermont Studio Center Print Residency, 2014

3rd Place, 76102 Juried Show, 2012

The Betsy Meyer Memorial Award, Main Line Arts Center, 2008

selected solo or two-person exhibits

Meditations: Elm St. Studio, Keller, Texas, 2013

selected group shows

Fine Lines: 76102 Gallery, Fort Worth, TX, 2013
Between The Lines: Torpedo Arts Gallery, Alexandria, VA, 2012
Electron Salon: Los Angeles Center For Digital Art, Los Angeles, CA, 2012
897 Square: 76102 Gallery, Fort Worth, TX, 2012

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