Kimiko Miyoshi is a printmaking professor at CSU Long Beach who has extensive training and experience in both traditional and experiment print processes. She is interested in transforming the mundane into the beautiful. I can see that in all of Kimiko’s work as she sees notices how water reacts on delicate paper, when she prints the patterns of different toilet papers, or sends flowers through the press to create delicate fleeting prints. I also see an element of humor in her work as I think the key to her practice is not only the elevation of an object and the creation of a sublime moment, but a childlike playful curiosity. Always after viewing Kimiko’s work, I can imagine her smiling and saying what if I did this…..
Sarah Pavsner's work does not have the quiet beauty of Kimiko’s but rather she presents a frenzy of energy in scenes that suggest dreams and mystical transformations. Sara uses printmaking for its physical qualities, creating an etched plate, she uses it without ink to emboss a paper surface. Once these raised areas have been established she then often paints or collages the work further creating a complex almost sculptural image. Her work has a childlike quality in both her marks but also in her images. Though often very serious and commenting on social issues such as the overuse of medication, Sarah’s work always has a dream-like feel that reminds me of a contemporary Chagall.
Like Sarah, Nguyen Ly creates prints that depict a dream like image. Working with dry-point Nguyen scratches into a metal plate to generate a print with a velvety line. A line that works amazingly well with her images of creatures, that seem half-man, half beast. These liminal creatures seem to truly occupy two worlds as Ly presents them turning away from us, both intriguing and beautiful while also dark and unknown.
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