Liz Chalfin

My art making is informed by my travels (near and far, large and small), as much as by technical innovations in the printmaking medium. I work primarily in intaglio – from copper and aluminum plate etching to the more contemporary forms of photopolymer intaglio. I use the structures of prints and artist’s books to create an experience for the viewer that is both intimate and panoramic, and strangely nostalgic.

My work is grounded in the observation of people in particular places. I am interested in social structures, interpersonal relationships, memory and time. I look for relationships of figures to the spaces they occupy and the stories that are embedded therein. I am deeply interested in memory, and how we reconstruct our experiences over time. What do we retain clearly? What fades away? How do our experiences change in our minds’ eye over time?

Printmaking is my medium because it is process heavy and gives me unexpected results to respond to. At each point in a process there is an opportunity for creative intervention, and I exploit the way an image transforms through each stage of a process. Often my work begins as a photograph, becomes a drawing, is made into a printing plate, and then is further transformed through inking and printing.

I began making Artists’ Books as a way to bring closure to a series of prints and to re-contextualize images from the past. I take a body of prints and reconfigure them into books that re-imagine the subject matter and present it in a new format. Long panoramas become stab-bound books; big prints folded into accordions reveal fragmented scenes; waxed Asian papers become translucent. In this way, I change a narrative and create a new viewing experience.

CV

website