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Susan Lowdermilk ~ Eugene, Oregon |
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| Susan Lowdermilk: “I am a maker of these everyday objects, specifically books. I work in the genre of the book form to create objects that carry significance beyond their function. My artist books are limited editions, hand printed and hand bound. Our experience of reading books is increasingly changing from being physical and tactile to digital and virtual. I see my work as a counterpart to the flood of digitally created text and imagery that we see everyday. My movable books and work with optical toys like the zoetrope are meant to show movement that is transparent in its method but still create compelling visual illusions. My work is meant to be thought provoking and hopeful, mindful yet mysterious, posing open-ended questions.” | |
HOPE? Twelve artists’ books, an informational companion book, About HOPE?, and a vial of wildfire ash in a 13 x 8.5 x 7" wooden reliquary made by Taylor Millar, a woodworker from Lagunitas, California. Reliquary f repurposed Douglas fir and locally sourced coast redwood. Title, hand stamped on brass attached to the base of the structure. Paper label affixed inside the structure stating provenance. Materials: Handmade and commercial paper, brass, wood, wildfire charcoal and ash. Processes: woodcut, linoleum cut, pressure print, photogram, letterpress, digital printing, watercolor, gouache, and ink painting. Books signed by their respective artists and numbered. Artists project statement: "HOPE? is a collaborative art project created by Susan Lowdermilk, Donna Thomas, Peter Thomas, and Andie Thrams. Through field work in recently burned and green forests in Oregon and California, the artists investigated the complex topics of tree mortality, catastrophic wildfire, and climate change. They have created a wooden reliquary holding twelve artists' books, an informational companion book, About HOPE?, and a vial of wildfire ash to bear witness to the devastation of western forests, honor the importance of trees, and grapple with the question of hope at this pivotal moment in the Anthropocene epoch." These four artists began their collaboration over dinner in 2019 during the CODEX Foundation Symposium and Book Fair in Richmond, California. At the 2019 Symposium the CODEX Foundation invited artists to create work addressing the global environmental crisis. These four decided to work together to create art regarding trees and forests. The pandemic delayed their project. During this time catastrophic fires near their homes shifted their focus “to investigate the impact of wildfire on western forests”. Their research led them to the University of California Merced’s Yosemite Field Station in Wawona, California; to a California forest that had burned in the 2020 CZU Lightning Complex fire; and, Oregon’s McKenzie River Valley at H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest. They met with researchers, forest rangers, Forest Service scientists and photographer David Bayles. They worked together, camped together, talked together. “HOPE?” is the result of their research, their art, and their care for what is happening to our forests and trees. About Hope? conclusion: “As we completed and documented our collaboration, we knew there would always be more to learn and understand about forest ecosystems. The project has shown us how our diverse strengths and working styles as artists mirror the complexities found in a healthy forest. We hope the ideas and images we have shared within our reliquary will encourage others to ponder what we have pondered, and likewise find reason to take action and have HOPE.” |
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Be Joyful “Today, in the face of information overload and misinformation, educating ourselves becomes all the more important — we need to dig deeply into the issues to understand what is really going on, to find hope, and to take action.” |
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Breathe “I saw images of protestors carrying signs demanding climate justice from their leaders with messages similar to the quote I used by Boris Johnson. I thought about how leaders and the people must understand balance with nature to survive.” |
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Catastrophic Wildfire “As our understanding of catastrophic wildfires and their connection to climate change expanded, our concerns increased. We see the catastrophic wildfires as only one signal that we need to mitigate climate change now.” |
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Fire Followers “After a forest fire certain plants will bloom and these plants are called ‘fire followers.’ Finding these plants growing through the ash and among the blackened trunks brought us hope and delight.”
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Hope Calls for Action “As the flexagon is manipulated, the texts fluctuate from hopeful to dire and reflect the shifts in our feelings as we grappled with the possibility of a catastrophic future and our ability to mitigate the negative effects of climate change.” |
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Invincible/Endangered “Witnessing the obvious decline of the forest in the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoia in Yosemite caused us to wonder what else will be threatened with extinction, and how that will affect the chain of life.” |
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Old Growth Matters “The rich biodiversity of an ancient forest ecosystem takes centuries to evolve, provides habitat for innumerable species, sustains countless ecological processes essential to a healthy planet, and is therefore crucial to our survival.” |
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Mass Unraveling “How much is our world unraveling? Are we capable of taking action to reverse, or just slow down, the downward spiral we may be within?” |
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Only What We Love “To love a tree so much that one gives it a name can lead to protecting what is loved.” |
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Resilience (right) “Clearly the earth has enough resilience to continue on no matter what humankind does, but forests don’t have that kind of resilience.” |
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Vast Unseen Networks “Through webs of underground fungi connecting tree roots to other plants, forest resources and information are shared. … We hope this book inspires interest in and admiration for the mysterious and diverse processes that help trees flourish.” |
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Whiskey Tango Foxtrot “This book explores the overwhelming, destabilizing, and sometimes dark feelings that frequently arise with awareness of catastrophic wildfire, worldwide species extinction, habitat loss, and climate change.” More details can be found in the “About Hope?” pamphlet. |
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Power Play 4 x 4” closed, six panel Jacob's ladder. Printed from woodcuts in black and grey. Protective slip on open ended wrapper. Images of rock, paper, and scissors appear in each panel with the background carved to imitate wood grain. Signed and numbered in white ink on the black painted inside of the slip-on wrapper. Susan Lowdermilk: "Through my creative practice as a printmaker and a book artist, I represent inanimate objects and abstract marks as visual metaphors or allegories. I explore tenuous qualities of human interaction, struggles and experience. I explore the use of simple, forms such as 'X' and 'O,' symbolic for 'hugs and kisses' or 'tic-tac-toe.' I'm informed by familiar leisure games like 'Rock, Paper, Scissors,' to reference interpersonal communication." Vicky Stewart: "This has been one of our favorites to show elementary school age children when showing artists' books. They love to watch the pages unfold and the hear the clapping sound as the pages hit each other. And, of course, they are all familiar with playing rock, paper, scissors." |
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| Susan Lowdermilk SOLD Titles: | |
memento mori 12.75 x 4.6"; eight panels. Printed on Stonehenge paper. An Indonesian palm leaf style construction with sewn thread binding. Black corrugated paper covers. Quote from Shakespeare's "As You Like It" - It is ten o'clock: (SOLD) |
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Page last update: 08.08.2022
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