This Friday’s featured artist is Liz Ruest, Collage Artist. I love her digital collages and all their many layers – especially the ones that contain the subtle images of maps!
Liz Ruest's Artist Statement is as poetic as her artwork. She writes:
"My work investigates landscape and memory, permanence, change, and regrowth. Do we remember a place, or just a feeling? What makes us recognize a location? How specific must it be, or is just a hint enough? What of all the people before us who’ve stood in that spot?
By capturing what might be the average perception from many observers, I create an abstraction that speaks about timelessness, familiarity, recognition. The underlying photographs, very specific to a time and place, are obscured by layers of texture and symbols of aging, asking you to come with me on a journey of recognition.
I draw from photography, printmaking, mark-making, and collage to create digital montages. My pieces are characterized by digital textures, created from layers upon layers of my photography, as well as scanned images from my printmaking or ephemera. My French-Canadian heritage, travels to Europe, and the rocky Canadian landscape recur as themes, celebrating the immigrant’s journey and all the landscapes they’ve seen over time."
Below each image are descriptions of these individual works in Liz's own words:
Liz Ruest's Artist Statement is as poetic as her artwork. She writes:
"My work investigates landscape and memory, permanence, change, and regrowth. Do we remember a place, or just a feeling? What makes us recognize a location? How specific must it be, or is just a hint enough? What of all the people before us who’ve stood in that spot?
By capturing what might be the average perception from many observers, I create an abstraction that speaks about timelessness, familiarity, recognition. The underlying photographs, very specific to a time and place, are obscured by layers of texture and symbols of aging, asking you to come with me on a journey of recognition.
I draw from photography, printmaking, mark-making, and collage to create digital montages. My pieces are characterized by digital textures, created from layers upon layers of my photography, as well as scanned images from my printmaking or ephemera. My French-Canadian heritage, travels to Europe, and the rocky Canadian landscape recur as themes, celebrating the immigrant’s journey and all the landscapes they’ve seen over time."
Below each image are descriptions of these individual works in Liz's own words:
Gauge
There are always clues on which direction to head, though sometimes you have to squint.
This foggy horizon is obscured with concrete and botanicals, layered with purples and yellows, and still shows the way with navigational detail.
This foggy horizon is obscured with concrete and botanicals, layered with purples and yellows, and still shows the way with navigational detail.
All This Will Be Yours
One of the many reasons I love Europe: the castles! Doune Castle in Scotland stands out as a well-preserved example; it’s no wonder that it’s been used as a filming location. When I see it on screen, I can’t help but squeal “I’ve been there!” to anyone in earshot. Enjoy my ode to Doune.
From a simple collage base of columnar forms, strong graphic elements, and plenty of white space, I added details and impressions of castle life: rivets in a medieval door, a list of era-appropriate victuals, aged stone, and the grid of an iron gate. A Scottlish Highlands horizon is included as a possible view from this window seat in Doune Castle’s great hall. Textural finishes from nautical maps, a terracotta marble composite, and stone complete the effect.
From a simple collage base of columnar forms, strong graphic elements, and plenty of white space, I added details and impressions of castle life: rivets in a medieval door, a list of era-appropriate victuals, aged stone, and the grid of an iron gate. A Scottlish Highlands horizon is included as a possible view from this window seat in Doune Castle’s great hall. Textural finishes from nautical maps, a terracotta marble composite, and stone complete the effect.
Feast Upon
I continue to be inspired by Scotland, for its rugged beauty, but also its abundance of castles and the ease of imagining life then. Or maybe I’m reading too much historical fiction! Can you see a sense of pageantry in this piece like I can?
The base collage comes through strongly here, with its red tissue paper, and the red lines of a map page ripped from an atlas. Atop that, there is texture from monoprinting, marble, mosaics, a Skagit Valley waterline, and Celtic knots.
Focal points include a row of busts from the Long Library at Trinity College in Dublin, carved wooden panels from Edinburgh Castle, a sample weekly menu from a castle prison, and a view of Castle Urquhart on the shores of Loch Ness.
The base collage comes through strongly here, with its red tissue paper, and the red lines of a map page ripped from an atlas. Atop that, there is texture from monoprinting, marble, mosaics, a Skagit Valley waterline, and Celtic knots.
Focal points include a row of busts from the Long Library at Trinity College in Dublin, carved wooden panels from Edinburgh Castle, a sample weekly menu from a castle prison, and a view of Castle Urquhart on the shores of Loch Ness.
In Your General Direction
That moment on vacation when you’ve taken a wrong turn or three, are definitely lost, but not resigned to total failure yet: this piece has that feeling of a blur of sightseeing.
I started with a dark base on kraft paper: there’s watercolor & monoprinting, text, and maps. And then, did I start layering! Trees, bark, mud, water, skylines…
The focal point is a row of windows from a warehouse in Scotland, near a train station, softened with a yellow composite texture to warm it up. Definitely the kind of place that tells you you’ve gone off track. Stone textures and a gray-green composite texture finish off and unify the piece.
See many more of Liz Ruest's lyrical works on her website at www.lizruest.com.
Have a great weekend!
I started with a dark base on kraft paper: there’s watercolor & monoprinting, text, and maps. And then, did I start layering! Trees, bark, mud, water, skylines…
The focal point is a row of windows from a warehouse in Scotland, near a train station, softened with a yellow composite texture to warm it up. Definitely the kind of place that tells you you’ve gone off track. Stone textures and a gray-green composite texture finish off and unify the piece.
See many more of Liz Ruest's lyrical works on her website at www.lizruest.com.
Have a great weekend!
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