Tracy Featherstone is a Professor of Art and Head of Printmaking at Miami University. She earned a BFA from the University of Cincinnati and an MFA from the University of Arizona. Her creative practice spans various media including sculpture, printmaking, textile, and clay to explore the wonders of the natural environment. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and she has taught art in North America, Asia and Europe. In 2006 and 2013, she was awarded an Ohio Arts Council Award for Creative Excellence. In addition, she was supported by the US Embassy for a 3 month residency in Prague, Czech Republic. Featherstone has an interactive sculpture featured at Cincinnati’s Contemporary Art Center UNMuseum and is currently working on transitioning Miami University’s print shop into a non-toxic, environmentally friendly shop.
I am most comfortable working with abstract imagery because it allows the most nuanced expression and unique opportunities for open conversations with the viewer. During this particular series, I was looking at a lot of Asian art and illustrative imagery from these sources kept reappearing in my sketches and studies. I was unsure how to effectively include the images without losing the open conversation with the viewer. To solve this problem, I made a type of printmaking “game” with the imagery by cutting each image into a woodblock. I printed one block over another without a predetermined outcome commonly seen in prints. I worked instinctively at the press allowing the imagery to emerge and be hidden between layers and stencils. When a certain state of complexity was achieved I manipulated the prints further through cutting and collaging and intermixing between prints. The result is a set of printed collages that function as sketches as well as finished work
