Mary Judge

Pop Flower Series Drawings 2017-2018

The Pop Flower series has its origin in the geometric motifs found on local and ancient buidings in Cappadocia Turkey, where I had a residency in 2010. The imagery seeks to fuse the mystical with rational divisions of a circle. From these first drawings, I expanded the series towards a more botanical source but always with the structural forms, not flowers per se, in mind. The drawings are made by using stencils on rag paper and pouncing the open spaces with a sack of powdered pigment. I layer more stencils and pounce again to create overlapping transparencies. This technique grew out of many years of research using the technique of the spolvero (meaning “dust”) which is a perforated line drawing used during the Renaissance to transfer drawings to the wall in fresco painting. Each stencil is made by tracing invented forms and cut by hand or laser. By working in series, and reusing the stencils, I am able to develop a form and continue with variations on the theme. My approach to the color is intuitive so that harmonies are spontaneous and evolve over the course of the drawing process. I am interested also in the presence of accululated debris or the unplanned, casual things that happen during the making of a work.
- Mary Judge