Helen Gotlib’s ‘Secret Beaches’
Helen Gotlib
Sea Ranch Flowers III, detail, woodcut, intaglio, acrylic, gold and paladium
leaf and carved birch panel
With each show change at the gallery, I sit down and have a brief interview with the featured artist. Helen Gotlib is the newest co-owner at the gallery, so we’re pleased to present her first show! Her stunning, hand-pulled woodcut and intaglio prints are rich with color and layering of images and mark-making. Some of her newest pieces are 4 x 6 feet and allow the viewer to have an immersive experience of the landscape. The interview follows:
Q. Do you remember your first experience with printmaking? What was your response to the process and possibilities?
HG: I think my first printmaking experience was probably a potato print in first grade or so… but the first time I knew I was hooked on printmaking was later in college. I’d been spending a lot of time doing very detailed pen-and-ink drawings maybe 25 or 30 hours on each piece and when they were finished I’d only have one. Then by chance I ended up in a printmaking class that I knew nothing about and realized I could make multiples of the same type of images using the intaglio or etching techniques. My mind was blown!
Q. How did you come to know you wanted to be an artist?
HG: It’s hard for me to answer that question because I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to be an artist.
Q. Your work is deeply connected to nature and our experience with nature as humans, what is it about nature that you would like us to notice as viewers?
HG: Specifically I’m interested in all the connections in nature and its repeating patterns. In my most recent body of work, this is shown by using wood grain to represent grass, time & water.
Q. Some of your newest pieces have many layers of depth, not only because of your use of colors, layering of images and line, but because you have started carving into the surface of the wood panels. Could you speak a bit about how you came to this process and your combination of materials?
HG: My pieces have become more mixed media recently because of my interest in the way that the wood blocks and plates that I’m printing from look. I’ve always been interested in that part of the process but it’s something that you don’t see in the end result of a print on paper, so I wanted to figure out how to tie that in to my finish works. The larger pieces in my current show Secret Beaches are all printed on a very thin Gampi paper, then pasted onto carved Birch panels that have a very similar look to some of the wood blocks I print from. This makes each piece unique in its own way.
Q. How do you interact with nature – what kinds of activities do you like outdoors, and how do you feel your eye as an artist informs what you do outside and how you do it?
HG: I love being outside as much as possible. Swimming is probably my favorite outdoor activity and I’m lucky to live in a state where there are lakes everywhere. I also enjoy hiking in the woods and bike riding.
Being out in nature just makes me feel so calm and relaxed and I think it’s a good way to focus on what’s really important in the world.
The more time I spend out in nature the more small details I notice. Those details end up in many of my pieces. I love walking in a place day after day and seeing all the small changes in the seasons. I’ve always been fascinated in trying to capture the cycle of life in my artwork.