In Search of the Meandering Absolute: The Prints of Mitzi Humphrey

Author

Mitzi HumphreyFollow

DOI

https://doi.org/10.25772/WB8E-R390

Defense Date

1997

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts

Department

Painting and Printmaking

First Advisor

David Freed

Abstract

Art is more than just a bridge to (or a reflection of) the natural world; it is a natural force in itself. The author is a strong advocate of "artist's prints," prints which are conceived and printed by the artist. She believes that there is a natural sequence of actions and thoughts which cannot be approximated by the substitution of an artist/printer collaboration unless the artist is truly involved with the printer or assistant in every step of the decision-making and mark-making processes.

The prints of this series are not about realistic pictorial space; they are about interior space--that of the mind and the heart. The artist is interested in creating variations on a matrix, making one-of-a-kind prints or altered prints, even impure prints. Sometimes this work is investigative, instructive, meditative, or celebratory. This work is not printmaking in accord with the common notion of prints as exact replications of a picture from another medium for the sake of general availability. Nor is it printmaking in accord with the atelier concept of an artist-created print matrix editioned with the aid of professional print craftsmen.

On the contrary, the artist approaches printmaking as a form of experimentation and ritual, seeing the cosmic in the microcosmic. She says, "I strive to create unique prints which cannot reasonably be duplicated in other media by other people--or even at another time by me. I try to give meaning and definition to inchoate perceptions using art as visual metaphor."

Rights

© The Author

Is Part Of

VCU University Archives

Is Part Of

VCU Theses and Dissertations

Date of Submission

3-23-2016