Update on – Conflict: Works on Paper

Photo courtesy Marcie Gilbert

[ Voices of Justice – Vallen 1989. Chalk pastel. On display at the Brand Gallery. ]


Some 200 people turned out for the opening of Conflict: Works on Paper, the thirty-fourth annual juried competition at the Brand Gallery in Glendale, California. I am more than pleased that both of my submitted drawings, Voices of Justice and Not Our Children, Not Their Children, received top awards for excellence. Out of 400 entries made to the show, only 93 were accepted; and of those – only two artists were allowed more than one submission, myself being one of those so privileged. To top off the evening, Brand Gallery Chair, Irena Raulinaitis, informed me that the Glendale special supplement to the Los Angeles Times (weekend edition, Dec., 3-4, 2005,) printed an announcement for the exhibit using one of my drawings (Not Our Children, Not Their Children) as a large illustration.

As if all that were not enough, I then had the pleasure of meeting the show’s Associates Purchase Award winner, Mr. Patrick Merrill. A master printer, carver of woodblocks, and fellow social realist, Merrill won top prize in the show for his utterly amazing woodcut prints, Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The prints are large, bold, and chilling updates on the medieval theme – depicting a modern militarist, politician, Klansman, and scientist riding roughshod over suffering humanity. As the four terrifying horsemen ravage the human race with chemical weapons, rocket launchers, scythes and clubs; as they traipse over a sea of corpses and crushed skeletons; a backdrop of the world’s modern cities are seen collapsing and on fire from multiple atomic explosions. The large black and white prints are a disturbing and foreboding visage of today’s troubled world.

It was deeply satisfying talking with Merrill, not only for our shared vision as artists, but because of our mutual love of traditional printmaking. As it turns out, Merrill runs a fine art print studio that specializes in the production of etchings, monoprints, wood and linoleum cuts. As a fervent advocate of handmade prints that are created in time honored fashion, I’ve been concerned age-old methods and traditions have lately been overlooked in favor of new media and technologies. I’m all in favor of the digital arts – but to me there’s nothing comparable to the textured grain of a good woodcut, the “bite of the plate” seen in a first-class etching, or the immediacy found in a superior monoprint. I look forward to working with Patrick Merrill on a suite of prints, and we agreed to meet in the near future to discuss the possibilities of such a collaboration. In the meantime, for those interested in working with a master printer well trained in traditional intaglio printmaking, contacting Pat Merrill Fine Art Prints in Montclair, California, would be an excellent first step.

Similar Posts

  • Right here – Get set – Point – Fire!

    May 4th, 2007 marks the 37th anniversary of the shooting deaths of four students by the Ohio National Guard at Kent State University. It seems few remember those who were felled by bullets during national anti-Vietnam war protests triggered by President Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia. The killings represent a monstrous crime… and we must never forget the students gunned down…

  • The Reign of Mediocrity

    Jack Vettriano. You’ve seen prints of his paintings everywhere, and they outsell reproductions of artworks by Van Gogh, Monet and Picasso. I first saw reproductions of Vettriano’s paintings when I visited a popular store here in Los Angeles that sells home decor items, and my immediate response was a disapproving one. The artworks are saccharine and “romantic” renditions of handsome…

  • Art in Action: El Salvador

    The International Center of Photography in New York is hosting an exhibition of wartime photographs titled: El Salvador: Work of Thirty Photographers. This important exhibit details the bloody US backed counterinsurgency war that ravaged the Central American nation, with the photos documenting the period from 1979 to 1983. Organized more than twenty years ago by photographers Susan Meiselas and Henry Mattison,…

  • The Enduring Works of Goya

    Los Caprichos, the world-renown etchings by Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828), are being displayed at the Cal State Fullerton Art Gallery in Fullerton, California, from November 1, 2008 through December 12, 2008. The exhibit is actually the tenth stop in a traveling national museum tour that began in 2005 and is slated to continue until 2010. [ El…