Shanti Conlan

I make marks on paper to create a record of places, events and experiences.  It is a means to explore the chaos of the seemingly random occurrences in the world around me and give substance to the ephemeral.  The actions of the natural world shape our existence and our place within it. Physical phenomena: sound, motion, light and energy are what shape us.  This is what I attempt to visually interpret, from the layering of sediment and the formation of terrain through the action of wind and water, to the movement and interaction of celestial bodies.  

I am a printmaker not only because the methods used are the only way, in my opinion, to achieve the look and quality of the marks and textures created, but because it is a process obsessed with minutia.  Both the creative and the analytical must combine to create a print.  Though the images represent abstract concepts and elusive places, their inception is quite concrete.  By making them prints (intaglios, woodcuts or monotypes), I control them, I am given the time and the patience to make sense of the images and conversely, of my memories and experiences.

https://www.shanticonlan.com
https://www.instagram.com/shanticonlanart
https://www.facebook.com/ShantiInk

Images from Left to Right

River, Mixed Media Monotype, Pen & Ink with Chine Collé, 2019
Cradle, Mixed Media Monotype, Pen & Ink with Chine Collé, 2018
Ellipse, Hard Ground Line Etching on Thai Lokta Paper, 2019
Frequency, Woodcut on Japanese Paper, 1994
Synapse, Mixed Media Monotype, Pen & Ink with Chine Collé, 2017
Hapsis, Two Place Hard Ground Line Etching with Chine Collé, 2016