Compare and Contrast  acrylic mono print collage on paper  40 x 36″  NFS

In 2009 I began experimenting with mono-printing using acrylic paint on colored drawing paper. I decided I wanted to print my own paper rather than using purchased paper to give my work more originality. I then cut the papers I have printed apart and collage them back together.

This process is very important to me because it permits my natural inclination towards intuitive creation to take control. It forces my attention down to small details & it allows a certain amount of randomness or chaos to occur, which stretches my creative problem-solving skills & keeps my thinking flexible. Attentiveness, flexibility & creative problem solving can be applied to a philosophy of daily living & by practicing them in my art it helps me to apply them in life.

In this on-going body of work, I have also further refined the sculptural shapes and forms of the previous years as I compile a more complex language based largely on the landscape as well as the objects, both natural and man –made, from my studio collection. You can see that the forms are organic or anthropomorphic and as such will remind you of things. This ambiguity is at the heart of what I’m trying to achieve. I would like the work to tickle your memory or subconscious mind but leave you free for interpretation in your own way.

Melinda Tousley