Katabasis
I approach each new series as a journey. Sometimes I know where I am going; often I am lost; once-in-a-while I take a detour. While I wander, I wonder. As an artist, I need to find one or two subjects that can hold my interest over several months, even years. For Katabasis I chose a map shape I had used in previous works along with photos my husband and grand-child took in Carlsbad Cavern. While I sketched, I wrote and I read. While reading Jung, I came across the word katabasis—a descent into the underworld.
 
I thought about how we walk atop the earth while secret chambers are forming beneath our feet. I thought about how the light is defined by the dark and how shadows negotiate the spaces between the two. I thought about Plato’s Cave and the people chained so they could only understand the world through the shadows cast on the walls. I thought about scale and perspective—perception and reality.

And I worked. I pulled colors through a screen, over and over. With this single form, I explored repetition, movement, and color. For the line work, I put their photographs on a light box and outlined areas of white, black, or gray. I was investigating the light and space in a chamber reduced to murky shadows and inpenetrable darkness.

Please visit www.nicolelongneckergallery.com to see more from this solo show. 
 Picture
Echo chamber, screenprint, 22 ̋ x 30 ̋ (unframed)
​Assistant printer: Tess Doyle 

Transition Song, intaglio sugar lift with aquatints and drypoint
11.5 ̋ x 17.5 ̋ (image)
18.5 ̋ x 23.5 ̋ (paper)
25.5 ̋ x 30.5 ̋ (framed) 



​


​Pistis Sophia, screenprint with graphite drawing on three frosted drafting films printed verso and recto, 18 ̋ x 24 ̋ (unframed) 
All work is copyrighted by the artist and may not be duplicated or used without the artist's permission.