JACKI G

A collection of drawings and inspiration. My sketchbook is a way of documenting my observations of the human condition in today's landscape.

This body of work started as a response to my encounter with the solemn beauty of the quarried landscapes of Carrara, Italy. As human demand grows for the ethereal white marble, the ecological marvel takes on a new scar. I am interested in re-creating this historical landscape that reflects both natural occurring phenomena and human interference.

The paint becomes the tool in my craft in reconciling an ecological situation with visual intoxication. Reenacting the role of the lizzatori through my own process in paint: cutting the marble, moving it, and reshaping the quarry. I allow the paint to build up the surface, then I scrape and I scar the surface down; leaving behind faint remnants of its history.

The resultant works strive to breathe new light into the landscape; uncovering the radiant beauty amongst the destruction. Commemorating the encounter in the process of paint then becomes an act of re-creation and a persistent resurrection of a fading memory.

In 2010 I went abroad to a seaside town in Italy and met a 94-year-old Italian craftsman named Tonino who welcomed me into his workshop and introduced me to his quickly fading craft. His workshop is filled with small, hand-carved wooden boats, resembling those of the port just steps away, and basket-like nets woven of wire and thread. His fish-specific woven nets, called le nase, are part of the regional fishing tradition; it is a craft that is passed on generationally through apprenticeships.

My work is a response to old crafts and deep traditions. Commemorating Tonino’s process through my own process in paint — the carving, excavating, and adjoining of the wood, and the intertwining, weaving of le nase — the paint becomes the tool of my craft in translating a fading memory.

This body of work strives to capture something of grandeur—extraordinary in detail, romantic in nature, and intimate in experience.