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Marcy Baker | June 1 – July 2, 2011 | Art Reception June 1st, 5-7pm

Marcy Baker lives in a vibrant southeast Portland neighborhood filled with early twentieth century architecture, diverse foliage and lively gardens. Dense layers of urban and natural structures are inspiring and ever-changing.

The spontaneity of the monotype process informs her approach to painting. Likewise, the structure of painting influences Marcy’s printmaking method, and that dialog keeps the work moving forward. In preparation for each new series of work, Marcy sketches the plants in her backyard garden through cycles of growth, decay and renewal. Seed pods, petals and leaves are collected on neighborhood walks and carried back to the studio, where they provide much inspiration. Baker’s process includes creating tools such as stencils and print blocks - used to develop shape and texture while building layers of paint or ink – and adding paper collage elements among the layers. The appeal of collage is finding that perfect drawing or relief print or etching that relates, often in a subtle or unexpected way, to the imagery in the painting or monotype. Looking closer, one can see that Marcy also draws into the surface of the work with charcoal and graphite.  She likes the juxtaposition of random, intuitive mark making with the orderly repeat patterns created by stencils and printing blocks.

One can see that the artist is captivated by the delicate balance of urban and botanical forms and by the contrast of lush green foliage against a muted gray sky. With each new body of work, Baker sets out to interpret and express these abundant surroundings.

Beeline Blossom Cattail Dosado Fandango Fushsia Nest Olive Polka Sage Sweetpea Trillium Unfurl Violet