December 2012

New Renaissance Prints

These prints are from an ongoing series that responds to Renaissance paintings with abstract, nearly nonobjective, prints. The structure and meaning of the original iconic images are merged and reimagined through contemporary formal strategies. The layering of formal and intellectual information on the paper surface prompts questions about where images come from and what they are meant to do. Although these prints are responses to specific images, the viewer is not expected to recognize the source material, although I welcome any associations triggered by the forms or the titles. The image area is fully alive as I allow the materials considerable freedom to dictate the direction of each image and I return to the source imagery often as a touchstone. The finished prints yield varied, but equal, answers to specific questions and of course trigger a new round of questions. Printmaker R.K. Dickson is Associate Professor of Fine Art at Wilson College in Chambersburg, PA.