Portland, Maine, United States
April 2023
Entitled “Again and Again and Again”, this month’s print is an 11” by 17” poster created with a standard photocopier. It was inspired by the often political 1960s-80s Xerox Art. This piece is a meditation on the repetition (whether that be for better or worse) found in both the natural world and the political one.
Made using the Staples self-service Photocopiers, you can do printmaking anywhere!
Song Inspiration: “Miss Misanthrope” & “Mountain Lullaby” both by Jealous of the Birds
Accompanying Written Piece
“Again and Again and Again”
Again and again and again. The tide rises and recedes and rises again. The sun comes out only to disappear again and reappear. We take a step forward and a step back, a step forward and a step back. Again and again and again, I’m not sure if it is a recitation of despair or a chant of hope. That is the nature of Spring and Politics.
Recommended readings
”The Untold Story of Xerox Art and its Bold Female Pioneers”
By Zanna Gilbert, Getty Museum April 13 2023
“This Queer Punk Movement from the 1980s is still an International Inspiration”
By Cara Hoffman, Teen Vouge, June 11 2021
This piece began with this stone, I liked it because the pattern mimics the beach waves from where I found it.
I wanted to create a piece based in repetitive action... because so much of nature is repetitive action like the changing of the seasons and the blooming of spring. I began by doing pages full of graphite rubbings of this stone.
In need of a meditative activity, I added the Phrase "again and again and again" to the rubbings as a way to process conflicting feelings of joy and despair. Because as spring came into full joyous force in Maine a series of unjust anti-trans and queer legislation was passed throughout the country including, senate bill 150 in my home state of Kentucky. The world around me was so free and happy but I was filled with despair. Again and again we step forward and then again and again we step back... and let us hope we will once again step forward.
In order to create the final piece I used a photo copier. I systematically destroyed and reformed those original rubbings into a chaos of words and textures. Mirroring the conflict I felt inside during that month. I copied them again and again and again adding in scans of bubble wrap, rocks, and finally my ow skin.