About my printmaking
In my pictures I’m showing places I’ve never physically been to. The images are allegorical. Yet I wish them to also function on a purely visual level, each whole & complete in itself; tales that need not be interpreted.
I want the viewer to experience through the images, strange places, situations and phenomena.
The pictures are windows on to elsewhere, to forgotten tales and lost myths.
The images can contain familiar figures and symbols and may at first evoke that which is archetypal. But on further reflection the meaning might not be so obvious.
The symbols become more enigmatic.
In my pictures I’m dwelling on the edges.
The subject matter changes and shifts freely from the stormy sea to the impenetrable jungle.
I want the known and the unknown to meet.
“Into the Wilderness”. In this theme I deal with the Jungle and the dramatic events taking place there. Amongst the beauty and the vibrant colors rules “the law of the jungle” where the stronger wins. When you look at the pictures from a distance you might only see the beauty, but when you look a bit closer things are not so rosy.
The Forest theme takes me to the mystical wilderness of the north, dark ghostly events bound together with typical Scandinavian animals. The forest is beautiful but the atmosphere is full of tension. The events are moving between the natural and supernatural.
Vanitas, is a theme where I get my inspiration from middle-aged church art, but I aim to make the mood contemporary. I use the current events of our world, where the law of the jungle also rules, and modern politics are the jungle and the apocalyptic riders circle the Bonfires of vanity.
About the medium
The pieces are multi color etchings made using 2-3 copper plates, where the picture that is drawn and painted on the plate is then etched with iron chloride acid to the plates. The image is printed from the plates to paper with an etching press, forming the picture itself. The technique is laborious and time consuming, and every stage is made by hand. From the plates you can make many prints, but every printing process is handcraft and takes many hours to do. I do all my printing myself, and find it an important part of the creating process, as all the prints are individual with slight variations.
Still I feel that I’ve succeeded with my craft if the technique is not the main issue in the artwork. For me the image is the most important issue and the viewer doesn´t have to know how the picture was made.
sari bremer 