Virginia Katz

Force Fields - Sand and Water I & II
Mixed Media, Mixed Process on Paper
2, 22" x 30", 2007

Formations - Mixed Terrain
Mixed Media, Mixed Process on Paper
66" x 36", 2009

Formations - Clearing
Mixed Media, Mixed Process on Paper (Unique Monoprint and Collograph, Colored Pencil, and Gouache)
22" x 30", 2010

Mud - Slush
Oil on Gesso on Wood Panel
16" x 20," 2010

Mud - Slush, detail
Oil on Gesso on Wood Panel
16" x 20," 2010

I've always been fascinated by maps, and satellite images or just staring out the window from an airplane. Seeing the way the land bends and folds, the subtle gradations of changing soils and vegetation and the dramatic linear impacts of man-made marks is endlessly fascinating to me. Obviously I'm not the only one. Virginia Katz has found some pretty amazing ways to portray this imagery. She'll try just about anything. Here's just one description of a technique she's used:  "...crinkling up sheets of kitchen foil, dripping on colored inks and then running the shallow reliefs through a press, which leaves an imprint on a sheet of paper. After letting it dry, Katz draws with pencils, adds watercolor washes and gouache accents and then tops off the controlled chaos by dusting it with dry pigments." (from a review in the LA Times). That gives you an idea of the lengths she'll go to get effects that echo her impressions of the earth. These are not maps. There is no correspondence to any actual place. They are essentially non-representational, abstract images about material and process. At the very same time they are landscapes. That she can pull off that dichotomy using so many different processes is truly remarkable. And the earth images are just her latest body of work among others more wide ranging still. There's enough ideas here for the careers of several artists. See more at her website: www.virginiakatz.com

I first stumbled across her work on www.bluecanvas.com