Selections of prints I created while learning various printmaking techniques in college, including linocut, reduction linocut, woodcut, collagraph, etching, aquatint and prints with chine colle.

I've always been a collector. I've gathered tickets, coins, stamps, bits of string and ribbon and squirreled them away in the chance that they might one day end up in a piece of art.

Book art is one of my favorite ways to use prints. Usually the images tell the story with limited words, and other times the books are completely blank as journals.

Reconcile Artist Statement

The idea of duality has always been of interest to me: foiling light and dark, defining up and down, understanding good and bad. It is easy to categorize, declare opposites and divide. I do not wish to see the world in terms of black and white. Our world is not just shades of gray, but the whole spectrum of hues and color. Consider this show the facilitation—reconciliation—of a conversation about dualism, inspired by philosophy and stories, fluid, moving, transforming from one quality to another, revealing hidden unity.

About Annelise

Since childhood, I have felt an innate urge to create art of all kinds. I doodled, sang and played with play dough like any other child, but it didn’t satisfy this urge. So I made more. I created characters by stringing beads and buttons together, constructed books from drawings, sewed clothes for my dolls. Every card I gave to my friends or family I crafted myself. At church I composed harmonies, at home my own songs. Today, I am still making. I am an Artist.

Alongside my urge to create, I have a passion to learn that compels me to experiment with a variety of media, including printmaking, assemblage and paper arts. Media often inspires my work like papers, textures and found objects, becoming characters and symbols in a narrative. While I experiment with media, I also play with a range of concepts and ideas rooted in other subjects. Literature, biology and philosophy weaved into my artmaking practice form an interdisciplinary approach. Though I often work narratively through representation as seen in editioned printmaking, I find the freedom and abstraction in monoprinting freeing and inspiring. Layers of texture, color, repetition, contrast and unity are visual elements I bring to every piece.

In my work, I aim to engage viewers visually, emotionally and intellectually, creating work that is relatable but open to interpretation. The art has substance and a backstory that is helpful, but not always necessary for the viewer to enjoy. My hope is to create a dialog of reconciliation, a transition from closed to open. Art has become my language in which I relay personal experiences, harmonize antithetical themes, and ultimately reflect God’s creations.

Overall Statement

This series of printmaking was born from an inspiration of nature, particularly layers, textures, patterns and colors of plant and animal life. Chlorophyll gives leaves their color, absorbing precious sunlight necessary for growth. I am amazed by growth in my own life, as a senior art major, business minor at George Fox University, awaiting an unknown transplant into a new soil. These works celebrate the wonder and growth nature provides, as well as pigment that refreshes our soul.

Galapagos

monoprint; with aquatint ink collage with various papers; mixed media; wintergreen oil photo transfer.

The Galapagos series is inspired by the island I would someday love to visit. You may notice, however, that the creatures depicted are not Galapagos natives, but perhaps ones more familiar to the Northwest. The four prints are a reminder that exploration of new territories can begin at home.

Vessels

aquatint with oil ink; mixed media.

This collection of work is an instance where the end result looked much different than the original intent, but in a joyful way. The printing plates encountered an issue in the etching process, causing me to pivot my vision of stoic black and white prints to color-touched altered prints, arranged as a triad of triptychs. Personally, the works symbolize the unexpected paths life may take us on.

Variations

monoprinting with oil ink on leaves and other textures

Birds in the Leaves includes collage on a panel and paint.

Leaves that dropped from plants are given new life as they became a printing surface where their delicate impression gently embossed the paper. The freedom of monoprinting allows for inked textures, such as leaves or doily, to be moved and layered through the rhythmic printing process.

a print a day

keeps the doctor

away

My challenge was to make one collagraph a day for a month. I ended up with over 50 prints in 15 days. I guess you can say I’m addicted to printmaking.

A collagraph is like a 3-D collage on which ink can be applied and printed. I’ve made dozens of collagraph plates by adhering various textures on mat board. At first it was an experiment; it was mysterious to me how each plate would print, although I had my hypothesis. I used my findings from one plate when making the next one, learning through the repetitive printing process.

You may notice variations between prints that appear to be from the same plate. Mainly, I owe this to the two main methods of printmaking. The first is relief, rolling ink onto the raised surface of the plate: the raised surface will print, and the cracks will remain untouched, showing the white of the paper. The second method is intaglio—that is covering the entire plate in ink and wiping ink away from the surface. This means the ink in the cracks prints on the paper from the pressure of the press. There are several times I experimented with both methods at once, often in different colors. In this way, I have played with duality in printmaking methods (relief and intaglio) and the theme colors, complementary blue and orange.

A series of matted mixed media pieces inspired by the colors of fall. These pieces began as gelly prints made with found leaves during a neighborhood walk. Meant to be a playful experiment, the prints then lay abandoned in my studio for years, until rediscovery and completion in 2022. Finished with pencil and oil pastel.

This collection began as printed backgrounds using a technique called gelly printing. Paint is playfully applied with found objects and stencils, often repeating the process with layers, to achieve a textured depth. All backgrounds were created in one day and then sadly tucked away, lonely, for a couple years until they were rediscovered for their next stage of life. in 2022, I instinctively began layering with oil pastels and ink, with no intention or expectation of what I was creating, with a goal simply to enjoy an abstract art-making process.

Alongside these creations, I have been studying aspects of nature like seeds, plants, fungus. I was inspired by authors like Robin Kimmerman with her indigenous and scientific approach. I took inspiration from beach trips and hikes, enjoying the local flora and fauna. I began weaving in natural imagery inspired by plants found in the Pacific Northwest. Each piece took in it’s own form, yet still conversing with one another in color, media and technique.

While my papercrafting journey began with greeting cards, my latest love is mini albums. These ready-made scrapbooks are handcrafted creations ready for treasured photos, notes and keepsakes. Inspired by the beautiful scrapbooking papers available on the market, and mixing in embellishments and found objects, these books are layered with beauty. The pages are full of pockets, flip-outs and interactive features which make opening these books very special. During quarantine, mini album making was my go-to hobby, and in 2020 I created dozens of books. Visit my Etsy shop to view my latest offerings.