Jonathan Barcan – Exploratory Sculpture Passage/ artist in residency 2024

JUNE 17-28TH, 2024 printmaking WORKSHOP JUNE 22 & 23

Statement: Billions and Billions

This body of monoprints is inspired from a lecture by contemporary philosopher Alan Watts, titled, “The Wiggly World.” Watts describes the connection between human consciousness and the Big Bang, and discusses the challenge that society has to integrate ‘nature’ with ‘progress’. The concept has led to combining imagery ranging from the figurative to the abstract. Diagrammatic drawings sit alongside anatomical illustrations, textual elements, and references to medical scans. The prints, like Watts’ theories, explore the progression of humanity in relation to the evolution of the universe. It is as if without conscience, in the same way that a rock knows nothing of the hillside that it slides down or a molecule knows nothing of the biological current that it travels, our collective culture moves with a forward momentum that exists without memory.

To create, “Billions and Billions,” I employ a variety of printmaking techniques, including Drypoint, Line Etching, and Aquatint methods. The completed works utilize a multiple plate printing process wherein each image is made up of ten to seventy different etchings, run through the press together on a single sheet of paper. Each resulting piece has a stacked and quilted quality, referencing compiled information and presenting many parts as a whole. I find that arranging larger compositions from a collection of smaller pieces allows for a creative improvisation which helps to push even further how the idea of ‘drawing’ can be incorporated into today’s printmaking practice.

Jonathan Barcan is a Portland based mixed media artist and printmaker that exhibits nationally and internationally. Noteworthy exhibitions include the Florence Biennial, Florence, Italy, and the Today Museum Printmaking Center, Beijing, China, and residencies at the Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing, and Druckwerk Print Studios in Basel, Switzerland. Barcan is active in the local arts community as a participant, educator, curator, and volunteer. MFA SUNY Buffalo 2011, M. Ed PSU Portland 2022.

www.jonathanbarcan.com

images courtesy of artist, all rights reserved.

Screen Print Acid Resist & Aquatint Workshop

June 22 & 23, 2024 @ alluvial