Today we are featuring Creekside studio artist, Veronica Ceci, and her stunning print on view at Creekside Studio during Austin Studio Tour 2021 with bigmedium.org.

VERONICA CECI ARTIST STATEMENT:

Working Hard or Hardly Working is a 36 x 24” 11 color reductive woodcut with a 3 color Chine collé. It is, to date, my most technically ambitious woodcut. The edition is very small, at only 6 numbered impressions, a BAT and a few dedication proofs. 

     The work has fantastic provenance. It debuted at the International Print Center New York in the year of its creation, 2017. Since then it has been part of group shows at the Lauren Rogers Museum in Laurel, MS, the Elizabet Ney Museum in Austin, TX and the Yellowstone Museum of Art in Billings, MT. The work is also part of Viscosity: Women of Print, an exhibition that has been touring galleries, art centers and universities across the United States for five years. 

    The piece is also frequently included in my traveling solo exhibition, Keeping House. The ongoing show changes with each iteration to best activate the given venue as well as display new work. Its inclusion in the most recent version was favorably reviewed in this excellent article about my work in The Texas Observer. Artist Veronica Ceci Unveils New Exhibit at Daugherty Arts Center in Austin (texasobserver.org). The article explains the philosophy behind the imagery quite well. 

     When I first conceived of the work, I wanted to challenge the physical capabilities of reductive woodcut beyond what I had done previously. In the reductive method, one uses the same piece of wood over and over to create a multilayered piece. It is carved a bit, printed onto paper, and then carved into further and printed back on top of the first impressions. The block itself is destroyed as the work of art is created. Although I don’t care for the nomenclature, it is often referred to as “suicide printing” as there is no way to correct any mistakes that might be made along the way.

     It is a process I really enjoy, it makes sense to my analytical brain, and to me solved many of the challenges of multicolored relief printing (whilst simultaneously creating ones of its own) Previous reductive prints I had made were well received and exhibited widely in prestigious institutions. The most layers I had completed in this method was six, and it was in part my goal to see how many I could successfully complete. 

      In all honesty, eleven was a bit much. The first few layers don’t really show through and the final ones were challenging to get to lay smoothly on top of so many previous. As I moved through the runs, the prints needed more and more dry time, sitting in the rack for almost two months towards the end. I learned a lot through the process and am glad to have set myself the challenge. However I don’t believe I will have that many runs in a reductive woodcut again. I have, however, thought through a different way of stretching the medium that I hope to have the opportunity to try in the future.

     Working Hard or Hardly Working is a rare piece amongst my overall body of work. It is large, pushes the limits of an already difficult method and the imagery acts as a bridge between The Flat World series I created from 2011-2016 and Keeping House which is my current focus. It is a unique statement to add to any collection. 

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