Sandy Kessler Kaminski, visual artist/ printmaking

Behavioral Scientists have noted that the surrounding environment shapes mental and physical attitudes of its inhabitants. Documenting how civilizations change over time, the constant cycle of growth, deterioration and then reclamation, is what interests me. Evident in my Circuitscapes, is the influence of technology on how information travels, the resulting change on our perceptions and, as a result, how time passing is marked. The lessons learned from my previous explorations supply my current body of work with endless possibilities of expression.

I am influenced by the world around me. Having grown up in rural Ohio, I incorporate my childhood connection to the land into art.  I am especially intrigued by the old and the new so evident in the terrain of Western Pennsylvania. The work I propose will consist of monotype and collagraph printmaking techniques.  The images are inspired by aerial photographs and circuitboards resembling the topography of Pennsylvania and Appalachia. The plates used in the collagraph are built from reclaimed materials.  Both printing processes document a specific moment in time. Monoprints and collagraphs deteriorate quickly. Together they document time passing as the image changes with each successive print.  As a result each print looks similar to the others but is also unique.  The terrain of Pittsburgh is also always changing.  The landscape shows evidence of when Pittsburgh was a manufacturing powerhouse of coal and steel, falling on to hard times and now rebuilding itself as a technological center.