Get To Know The Master Printer
Tandem Press with Judy Pfaff
boba continues a series of works that Judy Pfaff completed in our studio in 2017 which layered manipulated images of Indian Kantha quilts with other visual elements. For this artwork, the background image of a swirling Kantha quilt—full of illustrated patterns of flora, koi fish, and sweeping lines reminiscent of draped textiles—was printed from a grid of twentyeight separate intaglio plates, each inked up and printed in a different colour combination, on a large sheet of Kozo paper. Poured “bubbles” of glittery art resin in cotton candy colours were then adhered to the printed image. The title, boba, refers to the popular Taiwanese drink that consists of tea with chewy tapioca pearls, or “bubbles.”
The art resin appears again in Hoar Frost, albeit with far fewer colors. Pfaff combines a few different materials in this piece. First, the background imagery was printed in white ink from a large woodcut block. Black sumi ink was then hand-painted on the back of that sheet, illuminating the imagery that evokes stark winter plant life being whipped around in the wind and creating the drips that appear at the bottom of the piece. In front of that sheet of paper hangs a layer of white tarlatan (starched cheesecloth) that has been screen printed with additional marks to complete the imagery of this frozen scene. Finally, a section of resin is adhered on top of the artwork’s right half. This glittery clear resin was first poured over an image of reeds or grasses that had been inkjet printed on mylar. After the resin set, it was pulled off the mylar, carrying the inkjet image with it. These various layers give a wonderful sense of space to this artwork. The image feels airy and yet crystallised, frozen in a cold wind. The title, Hoar Frost, perfectly captures the feeling of the piece.
As boba and Hoar Frost have already demonstrated, Pfaff often combines unexpected materials in her prints. A hallmark of her approach to creating two-dimensional work is that she frequently layers multiple sheets of paper over each other and engages both sides of the sheets. yasai o tabete kudasai continues to showcase Pfaff’s imaginative use of several printmaking techniques. It is comprised of two sheets of paper. First, the line drawing of the vegetable images was printed from a large intaglio plate on Kozo paper. The many swatches of color illuminating the vegetable forms were then screen printed on the back of that same sheet of Kozo, and, once dry, the paper was treated with shellac to make it translucent. That sheet then hangs in front of a slightly larger backing sheet of thicker printmaking paper that was screen printed with gradients of blue, orange, and green. Judy Pfaff has many gardens throughout her property in Tivoli, NY. In one garden, she grows several Japanese vegetables, which appear in this print. The title, yasai o tabete kudasai, is Japanese for “eat your vegetables, please.”
In View 1: the garden, View 2: the fire, and View 3: weeping, Pfaff continues to engage with images of our natural environment in surprising ways. When working on these images, she discussed them in terms of three windows, each depicting a different scene outside. Although Pfaff has repeatedly avoided giving narrative meaning to her work, it is hard not to try to imagine a story when viewing these three distinct pieces together. The rich chartreuse green of View 1 and View 3 bookends the tumultuous red and black View 2. A strong sense of energy ebbs and flows throughout these three pieces as abundant life sprouts up in View 1, an ambiguous fiery event consumes View 2, and a quietness descends through the lacy patterns and drooping tree branches in View 3.
Judy Pfaff returned to her interest in Indian culture and imagery in two new photo intaglios. She titled Jawahar Circle and Enter (Jaipur) after Jawahar Circle in Jaipur, India. It is a huge traffic circle covered in gardens that many consider Asia’s largest circular park. Patrika Gate stands on the circle, greeting people passing by or entering the park. The gate features nine pavilions situated below arched columns and pillars that feature carved and painted depictions of the city’s history. In Jawahar Circle and Enter (Jaipur), Judy Pfaff has skewed and stretched images of Indian Kantha quilts, creating beautiful swirling arched shapes reminiscent of the architectural forms of Patrika Gate.
Garden-like depictions continue in Pfaff’s series of nine small pieces titled boutonnière 1-9. These pieces each offer a little vignette or close-up view of a garden parcel or cut-flower bouquet. Floral shapes overlap and are accompanied by a small grid of color samples. These pieces also feature Pfaff’s tendency to activate both sides of a sheet of paper to create a lush image. The colour samples and two layers of floral imagery were printed on the front side of a sheet of Kozo paper. Once dry, the image area was treated with shellac to make the paper translucent. Then, acrylics in highlighter colours of blue, orange, green, pink, and yellow were hand painted on the back side of the paper to highlight elements of the imagery.
