Debbie Schmitt ’06
These prints are made from multiple collagraph plates composed of sprinkled sand on a cardboard surface.The sand is adhered with matte medium and covered with tin foil. The plates are over printed one another creating many layers allowing color and values to unfold. The resulting images represent forces of water, glacial ice, molten lava, rock, weather and wind that have carved our oceans, mountains and rivers or streams. The images represent the myriad of transformations on the earth that evolved into magnificent forms and marks upon the landscape. We live with the remains of immense energy. The prints are intended to capture a sense of beauty, awe and the unfathomable power of nature. My work is a series of creative thresholds that are simply sketches of experiences, a place, or a notation from my memory. The work is a visual dialogue prompting creative direction and exposing traces of my process. The practice over time, becomes a sequence of images that serve as a navigational tool or, in other words, a creative map.