Artist Statement:

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Marbling is a magical art form.   Colors float on water and can be picked up by a single piece of paper.  Of course, there’s the science of the alum and the oxgall and the effect a drop of egg white or a teaspoon of fertilizer mixed into the paint can have.  There’s experimenting with the paper and the pigments and a whole range of variables.  But when it comes right down to it, it’s magic.  I can do the “same” thing over and over and only one sheet will elicit a smile or a gasp of delight.  It’s as if I’m just helping some greater force to make a mystical image appear.  It’s a gift, really.

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It’s interesting to me that my two art forms are really at far ends of the control spectrum.  So much of marbling is chance.  I can choose the pigments and, to a certain extent, manipulate the colors.  But when it comes right down to it, it’s always a surprise when the print is lifted off the water.  Books on the other hand are very precise.  I choose the size, the color, the subject matter and content. And yet, I like them both.  Marbling is much more abstract; books generally more direct.  Yin and yang, a search for balance.  That’s a metaphor for my life; I guess for everyone’s.

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