Christine Herman

Biography

Christine Herman’s voyage to printmaking was long and winding, the way most of life’s grand events are when viewed retrospectively. As a child growing up in Winnipeg, she felt drawn to the visual arts. She reconsidered her position, however, when her family was paid a visit by a temperamental and brilliant European artist, who also happened to be her uncle. Christine recalls her father commenting on their visitor, saying “Oh those artists, they’re so selfish and crazy.” Thus forewarned, Christine looked for a practical application for her aesthetic vision and, after finishing a psychology major, earned an advanced degree in interior design. The work was pleasant enough, though not really where her soul was, so she resurrected her artistic dreams in her early thirties, eventually making it her single focus.

 In the late 1990’s, she was in Taos and wandered into master printmaker Michael Vigil’s studio where she was able to take classes. Upon finishing there, she studied printmaking at the Universities of New Mexico and Minnesota at Duluth. Thus her passion for printmaking was born, and she has since focused her energies on the wonderfully rich and spontaneous medium of monotype - one of a kind images created with ink on paper using an etching press.

 Christine’s work tends strongly toward the abstract and seeks to establish an emotional resonance with the viewer. Her work focuses on beauty and what she refers to as “the unspeakable”, something beyond the capacity of language.

 Adam Swenson, Stillwater Living, May 2006

The Medium

Monotype Process and Materials

 Monotype is an intriguing mix of painting and printmaking. Each monotype is a unique and original work of art, made one by one on an etching press.

 Images are created using relief ink onto a plexiglass plate and applied with brushes, brayers and scrapers. Dampened printmaking paper is placed on top of the plate and both are run through the etching press, with the image transferred in reverse.

 After several days of drying time, another layer of ink is applied, and this process continues with successive layers until the piece is complete.

 Monotype is a wonderfully rich and limitless medium with countless possibilities for personal expression. It is becoming recognized and respected as an important category of ‘works on paper’.

Artist Statement

My work has been described as both meditative and lively —a catalyst for the senses and a window to one’s interior world. I am mesmerized by the spontaneity and painterly qualities of monotype and believe that the materials and processes transport ideas beyond words.

 Essential to my creative life is time spent immersed in nature. I feel the powerful draw of the natural world, and as such, am informed, shaped and nurtured by it. Taking a closer view of my surroundings offers the opportunity of drawing parallels from my own life. Gazing at a serene sunset or windblown field of prairie grasses can stir powerful emotions, memories or longings.

 While absorbing the wealth of pattern, texture, color and form, my work tends strongly toward the abstract and seeks to establish an emotional resonance with the viewer. I center on the phrase, “the personal becomes the universal,” an allusion to the commonalities we all share, properties that I hope my work instills.