Barbara Straussberg

GALLERY

ARTIST STATEMENT

As an abstract painter, I have been concentrating on the potential of painting and drawing to go beyond the canvas. After an artist residency, I began to experiment with three-dimensional forms by taking my paper pieces off the wall. Through the medium of printmaking, I was introduced to the ancient Korean paper-manipulating technique of Joomchi, where an artist works layers of handmade paper while wet to form one sheet of paper. I roll the papers with my hands and arms to bind the fibers together and open up the paper to create transparency. Additional fragments of paper lithographs are incorporated into the layers using a collage technique.

Gathering imagery from nature and immersing myself "in the landscape" is essential to my practice. I approach Joomchi from a painterly background. My focus is on the potential of the paper to reveal the printed image underneath and provide visual interest through texture, lace and line. I’m drawn to the possibility of taking a traditional craft technique used to make clothing and functional objects and reinterpreting it into a contemporary art form.