Defrost Artist Talk

On Thursday, April 21, three of the four artists represented in our current exhibition Defrost visited the gallery for a public talk and reception. The artists took time to describe their process and inspiration, and gave everyone greater insight into the show’s featured works.

Scott Francoeur spoke of how his interests in humanitarianism and historic events converged to form unlikely subject combinations in his work. In Defrost half of Francoeur’s paintings hint at experiences he had while performing relief work in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina; the other half stem from his interest in tsarist Russia and the mystic Grigori Rasputin. Once explained, the subject matter becomes evident in the artist’s abstract landforms and geometric grids.

Deborah Davidson described her conviction to limiting the means of art production as a way of clearing her brain. In other words, she told the crowd, she prevents herself from being consumed by the artistic process by using just a few materials and implements, such as vellum, sandpaper and old household scissors. In Defrost one of the results is Catalyst, in which layers of hand-cut, sanded vellum and paint build a surface that suggests words either fading from a wall or dangling midair like bundles of wisteria.


Maryalice Johnston recounted how breaking one of her arms in mid-2010 renewed her appreciation for silkscreening. While the injury affected her ability to paint, silkscreening became a convenient alternative because she could do it one handed. Bevy Scroll was born of chance during that period. Printed on a 2’x40’ roll of unused wallpaper, the work began as nothing more than a surface on which Johnston cleaned silkscreen stencils. Now suspended between two rollers, it emerged as a wonderful procession of human, animal and stellar images.

The points each artist touched upon allowed visitors to see these magnificent works, focusing on color and abstraction, in a fresh new light. Everyone at the reception agreed that it generated great admiration for the work presented in Defrost.

artist talk

Strata comes down tomorrow! For one last tribute to the printmakers, here are some pictures from the Third Thursday artist talk on May 20.


Here's Ellen Shattuck Pierce speaking about her linoleum prints. She exhibited two series in the show, her "puzzle" series along with the "kitchen follies" series. While the kitchen follies cheekily depicts violence in the kitchen, the puzzle series is a more subtle contemplation on collage.

Susan Jaworski-Stranc brought visual aids to describe her process of reduction linoleum printing:
Each sheet shows a step in the reductive process as the colors and image complexity accrue.

And here she is explaining it as Ellen Shattuck Pierce and Marc Cote, fellow Strata exhibitors, and Marco Athie, another 13FOREST artist, listen attentively.

Thanks to all who spoke and listened.