Exhibit Dates: October 30, 2024 – February 15, 2025
Artist: Carol Clay Mann
Location: Quincy Medical Group, 1118 Hampshire St. Quincy, IL., 2nd Floor

ARTIST STATEMENT

Batik and watercolor both involving layers of color 

Both batik and watercolor have the element of chance as part of the process.

The batik begins as unbleached cotton. First, melted wax is applied to the areas planned to remain white, and then the cloth is dipped in dye and hung to dry. Then more wax is added covering some of the previous layers then immersed in a darker dye bath than the previous layer. Essentially I must think backwards and be intuitive and flexible with blots and accidents that happen along the way, it is also time consuming as each layer must dry completely before more wax is added, (usually overnight). With each layer the wax will crackle as it goes into the dye making a web of fine lines. I often use 5 or more layers of wax and dye. I cannot tell how the piece looks until the final dye bath is dry, the project washed and the wax is ironed between absorptive paper, then the interplay of the layers is revealed. Pieces that I am pleased with are bordered and backed like little quilts.  They have the feeling of mystery and age that I love, the images themselves are simple, plant forms, abstract faces, swirls and doodles. 

My watercolors are a much faster and direct process usually completed in one sitting, but again rely on layers of colors that reveal and partially hide those below. I begin my abstract work without a plan, making a few fluid marks , often turning the work upside down, responding to a shape or space or color combination that has happened accidentally.  Many of the works use a natural component like stenciling or printing an actual leaf repeatedly then using the resulting interactions. When I play on a flat plane of good watercolor paper, I am reaching for a zen-like flow where design and feeling merge, with contrasting colors, geometric and organic lines and shapes, pattern and movement obsessively filling space. I create a space that is at once chaotic and ordered; I decide when done is done.

As long as we live, we are building a layered history, to get to our tomorrows, we sift through today and many yesterdays. Things, people, time and events cause us to repeatedly add and subtract from our pile. We are linked with our pile but it is not the sum of who we are.To know another person is to understand what is in their pile as well as their relationship to it. Some folks are running away, some are dragging it with them, some are standing on top of it. Big change can cause an earthquake to reveal what we might wish to forget.  And then there is the truth that no one sees your layers like you do.