Dorothy Simpson Krause: Vengeance is Mine

  • ©2003, Dorothy Simpson Krause


Artist(s):



Title:


    Vengeance is Mine

Exhibition:


Creation Year:


    2003

Size:


    4.5 in x 4.5 in closed; 4.5 in x 36 in open

Category:



Artist Statement:


    A painter by training and collage-maker by nature, I began my experimental printmaking with reprographic machines. Since being introduced to computers in the late 1960s while working on my doctorate at Penn State, I have combined traditional and digital media. My work embeds archetypal symbols and fragments of image and text in multiple layers of texture and meaning. It combines the humblest of materials (plaster, tar, wax, and pigment) with the latest in technology to evoke the past and herald the future.

    By focusing on timeless personal and universal issues (hopes and fears, wishes, lies and dreams, immortality and transience), I challenge myself and the viewer to look beyond the surface to see what depths are hidden. I imbue my work with the quality of allegory, not to be factual, but to be truthful in character. There are no prescriptive messages, but the montaged images invite subversive readings. By questioning the issue of power and how it is implemented, the dignity of the individual and the strength of the spirit are celebrated in my work.

    These pieces began with a series of photographs taken of twin performance artists Emily and Abigail Taylor. They were done for a solo exhibition, Dorothy Simpson Krause: body + soul, at the Danforth Museum of Art in the spring of 2003. The series includes several groupings of images and a book. The book, Vengeance is Mine, is an accordion-format collage of digital prints on black Arches cover stock coated with encaustic and pigment. It has a cover of wood wrapped in lead with ribbon and silver ornament.

    Strapped, is a UV-cured inkjet print of 3/4-inch polycarbonate with mirror and metal strapping.