The Printing Girls - #TPG/2020 Positive Escape Catalogue by theprintinggirls

POSITIVE ESCAPE

For all enquiries to buy an artwork, please contact The Art Room https://artroomparkhurst.co.za/contact/ Each artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s statement relates just to the work produced for this exhibition. For more info on individual artists, visit their pages on our website www.theprintinggirls.co.za

ALLISON KLEIN Pesanta

2020 Linocut and chine colle 1/1 R735

The dogâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s name Pesanta comes from Catalan folklore - a giant black dog who creeps into peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s homes at night and sits on their chests, giving them both breathing problems and nightmares. I have started a series of work about a bride who tames this creature (somewhat symbolic of the virus and the power of mass media over us all).

Amy Jane van den Bergh The open road lies ahead

Amy Jane van den Bergh Pause

Amy Jane van den Bergh Bird Song

2020 Collage R500

I have created three collages to represent my positive escape during the 2020 lockdown and my continuing circumstances. The Open Road Lies Ahead, Pause, and Birdsong each represent an aspect to lockdown that I have enjoyed and learned from. For me, lockdown has meant a time to slow down, stop, take toll of my life and spend a lot of time in introspection. It has offered a chance for me to deeply feel and respond to lifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lemons. To learn how fragile life is and how important community is to me. The collective angst and sheer frustration of this situation has also been a positive aspect - feeling like we are all in this together and all getting through it together has helped me take it one day at a time.

Claire Zinn Fly the Coop 2020 Reduction Linocut and Oil Paint 1/1 R1000

Fly the Coop is an amalgam of my experiences during the Covid-19 Pandemic. The base artwork was a reduction linocut that failed to make it past layer five but made for a beautiful background. The wasp nest was a theme continued from my Velvet Wings series. The wasps being both on and flying off the nest is an allegory of our progression through this time.

Ann Ludwig Warthog Walking

Ann Ludwig Nordic Landscape

Ann Ludwig Garden of Delight

2020 Cyanotype 1/1 R500

2020 Cyanotype 1/1 R535

2020 Drypoint and watercolour Edition of 3 R600

Lockdown was a very positive experience for me as I had time to focus on my ongoing art project Travels with a Donkey, Cat and Jester. It was also a wonderful opportunity to spend more time in my beautiful garden: observing and sketching nature.

Ann Ludwig Hare in Sepia

Ann Ludwig Ground Hornbill in Sepia

Ann Ludwig Sea Donkey

2020 Cyanotype 1/1 R670

2020 Drypoint and watercolour Edition of 3 R500

Cloudia Rivett-Carnac Home is where the Heart is 2020 Linocut Edition of 20 R870

Lockdown was a period of peace and restoration; a revisiting of oneself and what one truly values. Within this reflection I was able to discover whom I feel a strong connection to and my appreciation of that bond. The sense of isolation made me look for other ways to feel our bond beyond the physical act of sharing a space. A week before lockdown my friends gifted me with Bronze Manikins who parented two perfect tiny babies. I visited these little ones every day and knew that I was bound to the couple who had given me the birds. I realised that it doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t matter where you are during lockdown, what counts is whom your heart is with, be it physically or mentally. And even though I missed my friends tremendously, my connection to them was greater than our physical interaction, our bond existed within nature and time itself.

Emma Willemse Hanging on Threads 2020 Digital print on HahnemĂźhle Edition of 5 R1000

Hanging on threads hints at the intense psychological processes underlying the creation of my large-scale public artwork called The Boat Circle, a site-specific sculptural installation consisting of a labyrinth path leading to a found boat filled with stones. In the third week of the month of June 2020 I received a telephone call to assist with a re-activation project of the arts in our small town, Riebeek Kasteel in the Swartland of the Western Cape. I was on day 7 of isolation due to having contracted Covid-19. Six weeks later the installation was completed, situated adjacent to a previously disused amphitheatre, and facing the Kasteelberg Mountain from where the stones filling the boat had been collected. And now viewers can walk the path and place their own stones in the boat, as a personal and unique symbolic act. For me it was a path of survival and hope.

Georgina Berens Knife, Butter, Butterdish 2020 Coloured Pencil 1/1 R1000

My partner and I had just moved into a new home when the lockdown started. We threw ourselves into home projects, baking, and I made a whole series of these drawings. It was a time for quiet thought and I felt lucky to be able to take the time to observe and draw beloved objects like this butter dish, and to slow down.

Grace Mokalapa Infinite Transcendence

Grace Mokalapa Diffused Transcendence

2020 Collage with watercolour 1/1 R670

Here, my interest in ephemeral and geometric forms is present again. However, in these two paintings my focus was on the idea of transcendence. I wanted to depict clouds for this series as this has been one of my other key interests. For me, clouds are ephemeral and transcendental, and I wanted to see how they would feel in a geometric form rather than an organic structure.

Hannah Kempe Positive Escape 2020 Pen and gouache 1/1 R800

During lockdown, I found positive escape by clearing my mind and playing. While looking after a young kid throughout, I had to relearn ways to look at the things around me with an imaginative eye. In this moment of play I've been comfortable doodling and letting the images form over mistakes. Small drawings were made while encouraging the child to play and draw images of his own. The zine is read in the form of a book but if it is taken apart, each double spread will read separately. The zine spreads fit easily into corner walls, extending the playful imaginary. Underworld was one of my first drawings after a long period of little artmaking. It was a rebirth out of what felt like a dark period, leading into a new chapter of play and creation.

José Vermeij Silence in Empty Streets

José Vermeij No Need to Go Out

José Vermeij Worldwide Standstill

José Vermeij Birds Taking Over

2020 Cyanotype 1/1 R670

The COVID19 pandemic made the world come to a standstill resulting in lots of side effects. One of them was the effect of lockdown on the cities. Empty streets with birds and animals taking over. I captured that standstill by making cyanotype ‘positives’ of these empty streets.

Heidi Mielke Level 1 2020 Monotype 1/1 R1000

Heidi Mielke Level 2

Heidi Mielke Level 3

2020 Monotype 1/1 R1000

For the Positive Response to lockdown project, I created a series of monotype studies of the skeleton structure of a tortoise. I was particularly fascinated with the shell and how it does not simply lie on top of the tortoise, but that it is the tortoise. The shell is a complicated shield for the tortoiseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ventral and dorsal aspects, completely enclosing and protecting its vital organs. The shell acts as armor to protect the tortoise from predators, and it is said that the tortoise stores its wisdom inside its shell. This provided me with the perfect positive symbol to respond to lockdown. The shell became a metaphor to confront the concept of home, and lockdown became a space of storing growth through struggle, perspective, contemplation, and appreciation.

Heidi Mielke Level 5

Heidi Mielke Living at Work

Heidi Mielke Curfew

Heidi Mielke Prohibition

2020 Monotype 1/1 R1000

Kim-Lee Loggenberg Liebchen 2020 Watercolour Monotype 1/1 R1000

At the close of each day during lockdown I found myself seeking sanctuary in my bed. Initially I intended to make an artwork based on the bed itself, but then began to think of what made the bed such a welcome escape. The answer was simple, what made the bed special was who I got to share it with ... my cat and the moments of escaping the world for a bit. And so, my positive escape is the little creature sharing my space. I have made a simple watercolour monotype portrait of him. Looking back, the simplest of indulgences were the most comforting during a difficult time. The portrait of my cat represents the simplicity of the moments of joy that one can discover if one looks closely.

Korien Sander Jan “Fred” Frederik 2020 Mixed media Edition of 5 R1000

My escape during lockdown was to walk instead of drive to buy groceries. This meant that I could get out – and away from the noise of my neighbours who were now all at home, all the time – for as long as possible. From May onwards, my five-year old niece who lives up the road joined me on walks in the neighbourhood, and we marvelled at flowers, seed pods and house numbers. I escaped the noise at home by getting up early and taking up a seat overlooking the stoep of my garden cottage. One morning a ‘Jan Frederik’ (a Cape robinchat) hopped into view. When I showed my niece a photo of my new friend, she asked if it was the same bird she saw in their garden. My response? “No, that is Fred Frederik, Jan’s cousin”. This work reminds me of positive changes made and the joy of small things.

Kristen McClarty Press to Restart 2020 Multimedia memory cloth 1/1 R1000

Press to restart is about the time spent in lockdown and what it meant personally and within my immediate family. A reconnection in relationships, a time to have young adult children confined to quarters and get to know them as fellow adults, to rethink the balance in our lives, to resolve to live a different way. A time to take a moment to rethink myself and my work. The numbers are the dates starting from 27 March when lockdown started. 1 June was my daughterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 21st. A small hoorah in the endless days. At some stage, the dates became meaningless. A tragedy of a time that allowed some good to result. A gift we never expected to receive. A positive escape.

Kristen McClarty Germinating Thoughts 2020 Multimedia memory cloth 1/1 R1000

Germinating thoughts talks of a creative glut of a time when the absence of outside connection, social interaction, and the general stimulation of normal daily lives allowed for a time of fecundity. Without distraction I was able to take ideas from a kernel or seed to a real thing. Be it pieces of work, ideas for a series, building a website for my textile work and even making a new collaborated range. New connections, new experiences. The opportunity to work with young designers with different ideas and a different way of taking on the world. Not being relegated as an older woman with the wrong degree but being accepted and pulled into the magic of making something from nothing. A positive escape from life.

Laurel Holmes Positive Escape 2020 Monotype with Chine Colle 1/1 R750

During the initial stages of this weird and unsettling lockdown, I kept my mind off things by working. Experimenting with printmaking ideas from sketches and scribbles of small detailed subject matter, as there were initially no deadlines to work to, was liberating. As were the few solitary, forbidden walks on the local beach. Not another footprint â&#x20AC;&#x201C; that was weird. But will be one of the memories of this time. The little red plus sign on this print is from a piece of plastic I picked up then and decided to make it a positive â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;signâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. And somehow it seemed relevant to this particular work. The other imagery in the monoprint is dried indigenous vegetation I collected from some of the walks nearby my home and relates again to visual loss.

Lebogang Mogul Mabusela Tingly Sensations

Lebogang Mogul Mabusela Tingly Sensations 1

2020 Monotype 1/1 R1000

I experienced lockdown as a profound loss of personal freedom and a painful disruption of normal human interactions. The harsh and often senseless regulations enforced by government plus the creation of a “Command Council” did not sit well with me - with flashbacks of George Orwell’s 1984 creeping constantly and uneasily into my mind ... On a positive note, the abundant supply of online art tutorials, exhibitions, art gallery displays, and an abundance of Lockdown Art Challenges was a very special treat! One such challenge was the annual ”Sketch-a-Chicken Week” from the Global Urban Sketchers organization during the last week of March. Normally sketchers across the globe would find real chickens to sketch from life during this week. Obviously, the rules had to be changed this year to allow sketching from reference material instead.

Leonora Venter Rembrandt and Saskia 2020 Etching with Chine colle Edition of 10 R935

I decided to do small sketches of chickens in the ‘style’ of famous artists - or rather how I imagine they might have sketched, painted, or sculpted chickens - if they had actually joined the challenge! When “Sketch-a-Chicken Week” was over, I just couldn’t stop sketching chickens, it was just too much fun! It really made all the bad in the world so much better for me! For my positive escape work, I decided to continue with the chicken theme – this time with a little etching by Rembrandt (after his Self-portrait with Saskia, done in 1636).

Lisa Cloete Traveller 2020 Monotype 1/1 R1000

Lockdown was a deep time of introspection and study into the realms of my imagination and beyond. I learned to navigate and play in the unlimited cosmos in the less-explored areas of our super conscious mind. I learnt to release control from the shallow waters of my â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;realityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and the deep recesses of my mind, to slip beyond even that to the place where our creativity is truly born. I have been looking at the notion and spaces of creativity as something we can control and as something that possibly controls us for some years now, and this was the first time I could immerse myself in these ideas properly, letting everything I know and once held as truth and knowing slip away, becoming something more profound and more playful.

Mandy Conidaris Equipoise 2020 Frottage and coloured pencil 1/1 R670

Stones may represent our being weighed down by a burden or may symbolise the way we are grounded in specific places. As such, images of stones carry an ambiguity. During this time of Covid-induced lockdown, although we have been forced into the intimate spaces of our homes, some of us have rediscovered the simple joys of homelife without social pressures. It has been for many, a time of reassessing lifestyles and priorities. Here, the stone is delicately balanced on a fine thread, in a liminal state, a state of equipoise.

Marelise van Wyk Delight

Marelise van Wyk Luxury

2020 linocut 1/1 R670

2020 Drypoint/Collagraph/chine colle 1/1 R870

During lockdown I became acutely aware of what an amazing privilege it is to own a garden.

MariĂŤtte Momberg Positive Escape 2020 Multiple block linocut Edition of 20 R670

Lockdown has been a time of intense self-exploration and growth. The act of hyper critically looking at oneself and oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s actions has been emotionally exhausting, but ultimately rewarding. My little family, our home and garden became the central focus during the early days of lockdown. In an attempt to manage the feeling of unease and uncertainty, we delved into gardening, home improvements and trying to make the most of the time we spent together. This piece aims to reflect the structure of routine and the solace found in spending time in the natural world and with my family.

Natasha Norman The Artists Son 2020 Drypoint Edition of 10 R700

The extended period of lockdown came as a surprise to me. Temporary plans for waiting out the time became more permanent and I found myself in a curious limbo. My son became a guiding light in that strange time. His interest in the present moment and his first explorations of his world reminded me of the joy of being alive. It was a privilege to step out of the grind of daily life during lockdown into the universe of motherhood with such a curious and sensitive nine-month old boy.

Neeske Alexander Later Alligator

Neeske Alexander C

Neeske Alexander Just a Thought

2020 Linocut stamps with watercolour and ink Edition of 50 E.V. R670

2020 Linocut stamps with watercolour and ink Edition of 50 E.V. R535

When I watch people going about their everyday business, I make up little stories for them in my head. During lockdown I missed seeing people - so I started creating little lino characters from photos I'd taken before lockdown. I've given each character an animal to provide comfort and interesting companionship. It has become so clear during this pandemic that we depend on nature not just for survival, but also for joy.

Nellien Brewer Grandmaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Bed

Nellien Brewer Hazy Mornings

2020 Oil on stretched canvas R800

The lockdown came as a huge shock to us. Our restaurant had to close completely. The worry about our staff, and the uncertainty of not knowing whether we would be able to re-open, became almost unbearable. At the same time, the lockdown forced me to focus on my immediate environment. I started to appreciate the blessings of having a home with a garden; not being stuck in a flat high up in the sky; having pets and family with me. As I do not have my own printing press, I had to explore other art methods. I have always wanted to paint more, and so I did a series of oil paintings of objects and spaces in and around our home. Painting the familiar objects and spaces became a source of comfort and peace, and I have learnt to look at the world in a new way.

Lockdown. Life slowed down. Time for introspection, patience, and gratitude. Suddenly, here was the luxury of time to percolate ideas and create new artworks. From the inside of my home studio, in a village surrounded by fynbos-covered mountains, I considered how to live a mindful and meaningful life during this pause. In the midst of a viral pandemic my thoughts ran to the healing powers of being in nature. I imagined myself there, while sensing the positivity of this window of regeneration for nature itself, unimpeded by human interference.

Noeleen Kleve Waiting 2020 Monoprint Edition of 10 R1000

This artwork images fynbos as seen through the windows and door of my studio, as a portal into the regeneration of nature: alluding to positive thoughts and restoration - physical, spiritual and mental. Working with cyanotype (a photographic process harnessing sunlight as exposure) I layered this image onto etchings, and with embossings and monoprints of fynbos plants.

Purnaa Debb What is Cloud? What is Air? 2020 Etching Edition of 6 E.V. R670

“From Where Come the Foliage and the flower? What is cloud ? What is air?” ~ Mirza Ghalib This lockdown has brought too many negative things to many people, and I’m no exception. I lost my job and the only access to a printing press I had. I lost my friend, having that hard conversation with my parents every day, trying to make them believe that I’ll come and hold you tight, though everything is uncertain! I still don’t know when I’ll go back to my homeland get the smell of my soil again. While I‘m spending too much time lying back on my bed, I’ve also learnt to see the positivity around me by falling in love with poetry again and again and looking at nature. I’ve seen the colour of spring after the long harsh and darkest winter and know the bud will turn into a beautiful blossom one day. It doesn’t matter how strong and shiny the fence is, the foliage will grow around it because it cannot be contained by its borders. I’m still holding my strings together to keep myself rooted.

Renee Johannes Untitled

Renee Johannes Tondo 11

Renee Johannes Disconnect

Renee Johannes Tondo 8

Renee Johannes Tondo 10

2020 Mixed media and watercolour R935

Weddings were cancelled, inspirational cultural excursions postponed sine die. There was no alternative but to enter a state of isolation, a situation that artists yearn for in the normal course of events. During the first 30 days of lockdown, domesticity and overwhelming dislocation engulfed me. The emotional effect was creative block and unresponsive senses. Eventually on 31 May, an urge to create artistic chaos by unpacking every piece of art material in my possession yielded success and the nano artworks in watercolour and mixed media began to unfold. The title of the work Disconnect is testimony to my state of mind.

Roxy Kaczmarek Still life- Cuttings 2020 Mixed media painting R1000

Confined to our homes during lockdown I wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t able to gather my usual inspiration while travelling through the city. My house plants and cuttings became my subjects, an adequate reflection of stillness - with continuous growth.

Sarah Judge Wonder I

Sarah Judge Wonder II

Sarah Judge Wonder III

Sarah Judge Wonder IV

2020 Linocut Edition of 10 R1000

A time of reflection and contemplation... many hours sitting or standing at the different windows in my home, staring out as my mind was able to escape the realities of Lockdown. This time allowed me to physically be at home but mentally I was out in the world. My mind would escape the physical space of being at home and wonder through the city, visit a friend or family member, or even end up at one of my favourite restaurants. I've explored how the mind is able to wonder through different spaces mentally whilst the physical body is confined to a particular time and place, along with the emotions that are stirred up in those moments. A view or landscape that allows one to go experience a positive escape.

Yolanda Warnich Vast Place 2020 Monotype 1/1 R1000

Not being able to surf or walk the surrounding mountains were devastating, not to mention the monotonous tone that everyday homelife was taking. My home studio became my sanctuary, allowing me to escape physically and mentally. Physically, by using these â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;newâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; materials; and mentally by creating landscapes that were a constant reminder that mother nature is taking this time trying to heal. Making artworks with no specifics or for no particular reason was wonderfully freeing at times, while at other times it became an effort to try to escape stressing about the future. Such conflicting emotions created these visual results that strangely mimic my state of mind. Creating these abstract landscapes became my positive escape.