Statement by the Artist

A segment of a religious culture that teaches its youth hatred rather than understanding currently threatens World Peace by encouraging Islamic terrorism worldwide. On September 11, 2001 the homeland of the United States of America was attacked, killing nearly 3,000 civilians in the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and in the crashing of a commercial airliner in Pennsylvania. Citizens of 110 different nations were killed in these attacks, thus the violence extended to all of the world. The USA and its allies have declared war against this violent hatred, first in Afghanistan, then in Iraq. The wars against worldwide terrorism have no ending in sight.

My imagery poses questions rather than answers. What is good and what is evil? What is simple and what is not? What is logical and what is not? What is Order and what is not? What is prejudice? What is censorship? What is freedom? What is Truth? When should Life end? Is there Life after Death? How can we predict the future by looking at the past? How did we get to the present? How can we use the past to shape the future? What aspects of the past should be ignored in the present? When there is widespread disagreement, how is peace to be achieved? When is violence justified to achieve peace? Who should decide? When is dying not in vain? When is a warrior needed?

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved, and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

John McCrae (1915)

 

Human conflict is enduring and timeless because leaders, ours and our enemies, are willing to be contentious to the point of killing and war. Innocent victims as well as those who fight and die, though heroes to many, may be all too soon forgotten by a distracted society. How should Art guide our lives in a society that most highly values commerce, technology, sport, entertainment, and through popular media often glorifies and encourages sloth, selfishness, excess, greed, debauchery and irresponsibility?

The popular media (TV, music, magazines, film, and the Internet) is now promoting cultural decadence more openly than at any other in my lifetime. I find that alarming, so it is easy for me to imagine others in the world despising our culture for its apparent lack of historic values and virtues. We live in the most powerful and creative nation on earth, comprised of people from all nations of the world. The vast majority of our citizens value Life, family, friendship, spirituality, virtue, and practice charity worldwide. As a nation we have more virtues than vices. Why don’t we depict our values in our popular media more often and export more virtues than vices?

Although every thing we use in our lives has been created by designers and artists, we take little time to contemplate the importance of Art to a national culture. Because of our hectic lifestyles, society seems to be saying that Art best serves children between the ages of three and ten, as a means to develop motor skills, self esteem, and to stimulate imagination. Beyond the age of ten, distraction from Art abounds.

While we are surrounded by wonderful examples of applied art, Fine Art for contemplation is ignored by the vast majority of our population, soon to be forgotten after leaving formal schooling. Fine artists are not blameless for these conditions. Much of modern art is detached from the populace, indecipherable to most. Contemporary artists tend to be sensationalists, making challenging art for an industry rather than enjoyable art that reassures a populace. They seek recognition and fame that may lead to inclusion in the collections of wealthy elitists, who too often purchase an artwork as an investment rather than as a meaningful, aesthetic object.

I don’t intend to be a sensationalist, although my works may be difficult to comprehend. An exhibition in this space allows my art to be viewed publicly for educational purposes, hopefully as a new experience for viewers. I value art that provides as one of its qualities new experience, or a unique viewing experience – something as rare and impacting and cathartic as serendipity.

Those who expect this exhibition to directly picture tragic events, blood and gore will be disappointed.

This series of artworks takes an indirect view of tragedy and war, resulting in imagery intended to stimulate thoughts of past experience, imagery to contemplate over time, in the context of the meaning, value, and virtues of Life.

These works are about the aftermath of loss and the subtle process of reaction. They are about anxiety, uncertainty, and healing from painful memory. In an image you may find a reference as earthshaking as the death of a family member or friend. Or you may find a more calming image referencing the relationship of humans to the environment over time. Each image can be referenced personally, then collectively as representing a community or a nation. To me, national devastation arises from personal devastation multiplied worldwide. Why are we hated as a nation to the degree that others vow to attack Americans at every opportunity? This exhibition is about depicting the confusion that always accompanies the processes of living and dying.

What is Beauty and what is not? An expectation of beautiful imagery relating to the theme of "Interpreting Tragedy and War" is unrealistic. Imagery that glorifies war and destruction is called propaganda. Such images are created by a process of art called illustration. To Fine Artists both propaganda and illustration are derogatory terms that imply the superficial and artificial, not to be taken seriously as meaningful Art. For my purposes, distortion and exaggeration of imagery is more appropriate to my theme. Although I carefully adjust art elements in each image, I compromise an appearance of Beauty in order to elevate the importance of the concept of the image. In this process, I empathize with victims of tragedy and violence and I adjust surfaces and shapes in unexpected ways that combine energy, confusion and uncertainty, and by extension, relate to human loss and disappointment. The resulting surface tension reflects only a trace of elegance. For relief from painful ideas relating to this theme, in this exhibition I counter with images that explore avenues of personal healing through solitude and introspection. I lighten up.

My art is about questions that have no easy answers. It is based in Nature and the traditions of Art and artists spanning over six thousand years. I use natural materials symbolic of the seasons, the cycles of life, and of rebirth. My art is about the spirituality of Faith, Hope, and Charity.

I often connect my current images to imagery that I created long ago. I rework older images to reflect my changing attitudes about Art and Life. To connect my art with artists of the past, I sometimes include appropriation of imagery from artists who dealt with similar philosophic issues of Life and Death. In my works I use historic fragments from published artworks by artists such as Botticelli, Goya, Gauguin, Rauschenberg, and Lichtenstein, resulting in a body of images that are technically complex, edgy, and intriguing to me.

Selections from the series were exhibited at the University of New Mexico-Gallup in March 2003, where several works were isolated from public view because they included the use of snakeskin as a religious symbol, a substance culturally taboo to Zuni and Navajo Indians.

The mixed media process I employ is relatively rare in that I maintain the original deckle edges of the handmade paper (or further shape the edges), use colored pulps of both Oriental and European fiber; add ingredients indigenous to the geographical region related to the imagery (plant parts, mica, seashells, etc.), and further rework the image with collage, transfers, painting and drawing. This is risky art technically as it develops layer by layer and mimics the increasing complexity and difficulty of living and aging. For me it is hard to enjoy because of sadness with the Life and Death issues it addresses, yet I am hopeful that a work or two connects with you and your past experience in a positive manner.

WARNING! This exhibition contains controversial imagery that may anger or offend various individuals and/or entire religious cultures. Viewing these images may cause unwanted intellectual or emotional stimulation. Viewers should exercise caution when approaching this subject matter, as it is about Life and Death issues. The imagery is intended to stimulate and may challenge the beliefs of the viewer. The nature of ART and its content may not reassure or entertain all viewers at all times or in any era. VIEW THESE CONFUSING IMAGES AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Dennis Navrat
August 5, 2003

ORIENTAL PAPERMAKING. A process of macerating an assortment of vegetable fibers, floating them in water, collecting them on a screen, and allowing them to dry was first developed in China, perhaps as early as 150 B.C. Early papers made by Ts’ai Lun about 105 A.D. were made from true hemp fibers.

The process was studied intensely, considered to be immensely important and was kept secret from the rest of the world. Five hundred years later, the craft was carried from China to Korea and then to Japan. As the technology developed in Japan, three plants were discovered that produced thin, translucent papers of exceptional quality: Kozo (made from the inner bark of the mulberry tree); then later, Gampi and Mitsumata (made from the inner fibers of small, shrub like plants).

Knowledge of papermaking traveled west along trade routes to the Mediterranean Sea. Around 700 A.D. early papermaking mills were established in Samarkland in Central Asia by prisoners. An abundance of hemp and flax in this region was used to make paper. The process spread to Egypt, where cotton, in the form of new cloth or rags, was used for fibers to process paper. Paper produced from cotton was thick, opaque, absorbent, and crisp – ideal for the existing writing tools - quill pens and styluses.

About 700 A.D. papermaking spread to Southeast Asia, throughout Africa, the Pacific, and to Latin America, in the forms of papyrus, tapa, amate, and rice papers.

The oriental process of papermaking by hand continues today, laboriously, in these areas of the world, producing papers of rich, rare qualities. Today amate (made from the inner bark of the wild fig tree) is made almost exclusively by the Otomi Indians in San Pablito, a village in the Sierra Madre Oriental Mountains northeast of Mexico City, where it is used for witchcraft and made for the tourist industry.

EUROPEAN PAPERMAKING. Papermaking moved across Europe, and in 1719 French scientist René de Reamur observed that wasps made a very fine paper for their nests from wood digested in their mouths. With a shortage of cotton and linen cloth and an ever-growing need for paper, this observation led to further plant experiments.

It soon became apparent that whole trees, with extensive treatment, could produce paper. This new source of raw material led to the development of yet another technology and another class of papers – no longer to be made by hand methods.

Machine Made Paper. The quantity of pulp produced from a tree and the large demand for paper led to the invention of the Fourdrinier machine in 1806. It could produce paper on a continuous web and in enormous quantities. Further improved and enlarged this type of machine remains in use today, each one capable of producing over forty-eight tons of lightweight paper a day.

Mouldmade Paper. The cylinder, another type of machine (still in use today), is responsible for producing "moldmade" paper that resembles, as closely as possible, handmade paper. The cylinder machine, which became operative in 1809 in England, differs from the flatbed machine in its method of forming the web (continuous sheet of paper).

America’s first cylinder paper machine was operated in 1817 by Thomas Gilpin Mills on Brandywine Creek, near Wilmington, Delaware. No cylinder machines exist in the U.S.A. today for commercial purposes because they are uneconomical.

Hand papermaking came to North America in 1690, but by the end of the Civil War in 1865, modern industry, the use of the new Fourdrinier flatbed machine, and the conversion to wood pulp effectively brought to an end the production of handmade paper in the United States.

20^th CENTURY REVIVAL OF HAND PAPERMAKING. Hand papermaking in the U.S.A. began again through the efforts of Dard Hunter, whose 1943 book on the history and methodology of paper subsequently became a bible to hand papermakers. Use of archival pulps such as cotton, flax, abaca, kozo, mitsumata, and gampi, and skillful papermaking by hand produces sheets of unequaled quality and permanence, and is demanded by artists throughout the world. Acid-free papers of 100% cotton or linen fibers are unaffected by time – if handled with care.

Historically, the development of archival papermaking as a substrate for written and visual communications provides a record of human interaction from the 2nd Century A.D. to the present. For almost two thousand years traditional handmade paper has utilized natural fibers rich in cellulose to make distinctive sheets of handmade paper used as a substratum by writers, and by artists for work in visual mediums such as drawing, printmaking, painting, graphic design, or other traditional visual disciplines.

In the 1970s a renaissance in papermaking occurred in the United States resulting in a new, original art form "OF" paper -- shaped, cast, laminated, embossed, pigmented or dyed, sculpted, and sometimes embedded with natural and human made objects. The new art form original to the twentieth century is known as Paper Art, and offers exciting possibilities as a medium of expression for artistic concepts.

Most technical information about paper art is networked between individual papermakers and paper artists through organizations such as the Dard Hunter Society (Dard Hunter authored the "bible" of PAPERMAKING: The History and Technique of an Ancient Craft, first published in 1943), and the International Association of Papermakers and Paper Artists (IAPMA).

The multimedia art I create combines Oriental and European hand papermaking traditions unchanged for nearly two thousand years. It begins in a process that involves the resources of a traditional papermaking mill:

RAW FIBER. [cotton, flax, abaca (Manila hemp from banana trees), raw kozo, and gampi]. I purchase cotton by the bale from cotton mills in South Carolina. I also purchase blotter-like sheets called "linters" of pure cotton, flax, and abaca fibers. Raw kozo is purchased as strands of inner bark from tree-like shrubs. When linters or fibers are processed in water, they form "pulp;"

BEATER. Water is added to the fiber that is then beaten to a pulp by machinery known as a Hollander Beater or hydropulper. The Hollander Beater I use is called a "ten pound beater" because ten pounds of dry fiber can be processed in a single load. This large machine was fabricated from stainless steel by a machinist near Spink, South Dakota in the 1970s.

To prepare kozo, I ret the fiber for several months to avoid the toxic fumes produced if it is cooked in soda ash. The kozo fibers are then "beaten" with a stick;

VATS. Wooden, stainless steel, and plastic vats are used to contain fibrous pulp in a slurry of water. The largest vat I use is 5’ x 7’; the smallest is 16" x 20." I often use about fifteen vats, each containing a differently colored pulp and differing fibers.

MOULD (screen covered wooden frame) and DECKLE (a shallow wooden frame that surrounds and rests on top of the mould to control the thickness and the edge contour - the deckled edges - of the sheet of paper formed by the mould and deckle when it is immersed in the fibrous pulp). I use moulds and deckles of various sizes that I make from bronze mesh screens and also plastic mesh screens. I also create shaped moulds from mahogany plywood such as triangles, buffalo, elk, moose, coyote, snake, B-1 Bomber, AK-47, pistols, etc. I use about forty differently shaped moulds. The shaped moulds allow the creation of multiples in the manner of printmaking;

FELTS. Large blankets of felt are used for transferring onto, or "couching," the newly formed sheet of paper from the mould;

HYDRAULIC or MECHANICAL PRESS. (to extract excess water from a stack of felts interspersed with sheets of handmade paper. The proper pressing of such a "post" gives HMP its strength and durability). I have a large twenty-ton press and a smaller twenty-ton press in my studio, each uniquely made of aluminum by machinists. I also constructed a 4’ x 8’ vacuum table which also functions in the manner of a press to remove water from very large and thick sheets of handmade paper (over ½" thick HMP); and

RESTRAINT DRYER. (an apparatus of dry linters or blotters between which newly formed sheets of HMP are placed after they are separated from a freshly pressed post of handmade paper). In about ten hours the drying cocoon is opened and the HMP is pressed flat and relatively dry.

In my work I form base sheets of HMP onto which are couched colored pulps of various fibers in layers and textures (a multiple lamination process involving up to 500 applications of colored pulps) until I arrive at a visually complex surface design, rich in color and texture. During this lamination process the contour may be shaped, parts of the image may be sculpted into variable thickness, and objects may be embedded into it. It is at this point that excess water is pressed from the fibrous image. After the image is pressed, it is ready for further manipulation of the image by embossing, stamping, additional shaping and sculpting, and finally it is restraint dried. After it has completely dried, it is then manipulated with drawing, watercolor painting, acrylic painting, collage, image transfers, and/or assemblage to complete the imagery.

My primary research consists of combining European and oriental materials, equipment, and methods of papermaking with current paper art processes of pulp dyeing, sheetforming, lamination, embedment, embossing, shaping, sculpting, and casting, subsequently worked upon, after pressing and drying, with traditional non-toxic media of drawing, watercolor painting, acrylic painting, collage, and acrylic transfers of appropriated imagery relating to 9-11 and the theme of a series of works, Interpreting Tragedy and War.