Suzi Davidoff is an avid naturalist and hiker. It is no surprise that her love of nature is a part of her art practice. In her recent 2017 installation, Simplified World, at the University of Texas El Paso’s Rubin Center for the Visual Arts in El Paso, Davidoff created large charcoal drawings of plants and animals drawn directly onto maps and globes. She invites us to experience the merging of the conceptual vision of our earth with her own direct, observant images. We sense in these map drawings her awe of the life forms and the thrill of the beauty of life on this planet.
Continuing in this theme, Davidoff began a suite of etchings at Flatbed Press this spring titled the “Rio Grande Suite.” This suite of four etchings was created with soft ground and aquatint methods featuring images of flowering plants that are endangered in New Mexico. Her objective was to print the plants over the terrain in which they are found, combining her visual experience of the plants with the scientifically imaged land in which they now exist. Davidoff employed the etching techniques of aquatint and soft ground that would allow her to create the variety of rich charcoal-like marks and hues ranging from wisp-like smudges to deepest black. These silhouetted images were printed over details of a New Mexico geological map which were digitally printed using archival inks on Japan Kitakata paper. The copper plates carrying Davidoff’s drawn and etched plant images were then printed with an intense black ink over the map sections. The printed-over map was collaged to a heavy white Rives BFK paper for backing.
The four plant images were each printed in an edition of 24. In each edition, there are three variations. Davidoff chose three maps for each image, so there are three mini-editions of eight of each map making up the 24 prints in each edition.
Read Davidoff’s “Field Notes”posted below to fully appreciate the underlying content of these works.
The editioning (printing) of these prints are now underway with completion expected in September. Flatbed is pleased to offer collectors a discount for a pre-publication purchase.
