NEW GROUNDS
Image Gallery -click to enlarge
Hand sewing reinforces my connection to the work and keeps me in touch emotionally as well as physically with the processes and materials.
NEW GROUNDS sees Dionne applying her instinctive understanding of textiles to her developing mastery of printmaking. The result is reminiscent of landscape – folds, curves and undulations; marks which might be shadows or forms; lines which create paths through or boundaries around.
Collograph is Swift’s chosen technique for this new series. Her studio provides the found objects which she applies to a card backing board – a label from a roll of tape; sandpaper; tissue; a strip of fabric. The plates are cool and reserved until the ink draws the textures from the woollen felt print blankets on which she works.
Dionne sees the broken patterns and distorted rhythms created by edges that aren’t quite straight and angles that don’t quite match; waiting frames reared up against a wall; a half open set of drawers. It is these discrepancies in order which inspire the stitching, cutting, and layering onto and into the printed felt that adds further depths and gives the finished work its warmth and physicality.
Dionne Swift brings to her work the energy and excitement of one who delights in the discovery of new approaches and techniques. In this new collection there is no doubt that the same delight will be shared by her audience.
Jo Gorner/Printmaker & Lee Corner/Creative Mentor
