Betsey Garand, Sign
Betsey Garand
1959-
American
Alternative Name
Betsey Annette Garand
Date
2016
Edition / State
18/20
Classification
Print
Dimensions
8 x 30 in. (20.3 x 76.2 cm)
Accession Number
2016.20.20.05
Credit
Gift of the Artist
Memo / Artist Statement
Sign
by
Betsey Garand
markers of time
journey within
journey without
instinct
past
present
future
connected
continuum
seen and unseen
petroglyphs
eagle
courage
wisdom
strength
talons
flora
fauna
seeds
stems
trees
grain
ingrained
part of a whole
united together
My work centers around ideas of resonance, balance and continuum; aspects existent in physical and psychological life. Biomorphic shapes intertwine with calligraphic linear elements; some seem animal-like while other shapes reference utilitarian tools or invented natural forms. There is an entwined component of flat and dimensional space, imagined and seen, with quips of comedic interactions.
A source of inspiration is evident in the symbology of shapes utilized in pictographs and petroglyphs by indigenous peoples from the Anza-Borrego Desert to the Chauvet Cave. Pictographs are images drawn on stone with natural pigments and petroglyphs are engraved images in stone. The combination of observed and invented shapes to create imagery and a form of written, visual language is paradoxically narrative and symbolic as well as representational and abstract. It interests me that two horned goats are adjacent to a quadranted circle or the head of a feline is next to a dot pattern. In North America, petroglyphs were used as a form of communication directly influenced by the unifying sign language used by the 500 native nations. I have travelled to numerous sites in the United States to do visual research and view pictographs and petroglyphs in their specific geographic locations.
I am presently working on multiple series including hand pulled prints, drawings and watercolors. The prints are a combination of various techniques including woodcut, spit-bite and lift-ground aquatint, drypoint, etching and pochôir. The colors are layered and often transparent, muted with accents of vibrancy. For example, the Notation series references visual research and investigations kept in my spiral notebooks and journals.
(https://www.amherst.edu/people/facstaff/bagarand, 2020)
by
Betsey Garand
markers of time
journey within
journey without
instinct
past
present
future
connected
continuum
seen and unseen
petroglyphs
eagle
courage
wisdom
strength
talons
flora
fauna
seeds
stems
trees
grain
ingrained
part of a whole
united together
My work centers around ideas of resonance, balance and continuum; aspects existent in physical and psychological life. Biomorphic shapes intertwine with calligraphic linear elements; some seem animal-like while other shapes reference utilitarian tools or invented natural forms. There is an entwined component of flat and dimensional space, imagined and seen, with quips of comedic interactions.
A source of inspiration is evident in the symbology of shapes utilized in pictographs and petroglyphs by indigenous peoples from the Anza-Borrego Desert to the Chauvet Cave. Pictographs are images drawn on stone with natural pigments and petroglyphs are engraved images in stone. The combination of observed and invented shapes to create imagery and a form of written, visual language is paradoxically narrative and symbolic as well as representational and abstract. It interests me that two horned goats are adjacent to a quadranted circle or the head of a feline is next to a dot pattern. In North America, petroglyphs were used as a form of communication directly influenced by the unifying sign language used by the 500 native nations. I have travelled to numerous sites in the United States to do visual research and view pictographs and petroglyphs in their specific geographic locations.
I am presently working on multiple series including hand pulled prints, drawings and watercolors. The prints are a combination of various techniques including woodcut, spit-bite and lift-ground aquatint, drypoint, etching and pochôir. The colors are layered and often transparent, muted with accents of vibrancy. For example, the Notation series references visual research and investigations kept in my spiral notebooks and journals.
(https://www.amherst.edu/people/facstaff/bagarand, 2020)
Biography
Betsey Garand is one of seven children, a New Hampshire native, raised on a small, self-sufficient family farm in the Monadnock region. She has a twin sister, the sculptor Brenda Garand. She received her BFA in Printmaking from the University of New Hampshire and an MFA in Printmaking from Tyler School of Art of Temple University. Her work is included in numerous public collections including the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Arkansas Art Center; the Art Museum of Estonia, Tokyo Geijutsu Daigaku, Japan and the Sado Woodcut Print Village Museum, Sado Island, Japan. Awards and honors include a Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant and fellowships at Dorland Mountain Arts Colony and the MacDowell Colony. Exhibitions include a solo exhibition Findings at Dadapost Gallery in Berlin, Germany. Artist's books were in the travelling exhibitions Monumental Ideas in Miniature Books I and II. Cannonball Press included a linocut in their portfolio of prints entitled Mockery, a tribute to the printmaker Richard Mock. A collaboration with a Mexican poet Juan Armando Rojas resulted in a series of prints illustrating the poetry book Ceremonial of Wind. She has been on the faculty of the Visual Arts Program at Princeton University and Chautauqua School of Art; as well as a visiting artist at Parsons School of Design, American University in Corciano, Italy, the University of Vermont and The Art Institute of Boston Lesley University. Garand is presently Senior Resident Artist at Amherst College in the Department of Art and the History of Art, head of Printmaking.
Date of Bio
Inscription
Edition, title, signature in pencil (verso)