Print measures 3 1/2"X 6 1/2"

Framed 7 1/4" X 10 1/4"

About Victoria Elbroch
 
I draw ancient trees, sometimes as large, isolated portraits and sometimes buried in the enduring landscape.

 The portraits are detailed renderings celebrating all the gnarly protrusions, textures, and anomalies of bark, the smaller works tell stories by incorporating historical newspaper collage and a cut paper root system, so both the trunk and the fungal network beneath can be imagined.

The trees are a metaphor for all I hold dear, I draw with a reverence for the natural world, inspired by “these penetrating preachers,*” letting them teach that everything alive is connected and it is not about competition but cooperation.

*From a quote by Herman Hesse.

About the Monoprint Process

The monoprints are usually printed on prepared paper. First, I make exciting washes with inks on the paper representing landscape and brooding sky and then carefully print the plate in the appropriate area. There are also prints brushed with bees wax and stitched to washed backgrounds, prints on top of loose ink drawings and prints enhanced with added texture from stitching or chine collé. 

 I also have a series of photopolymer etchings printed over layered monotypes. I first print plexiglass plates building layers with Akua water-based ink.  See through windows made with carefully cut out stencils allow pops of vivid color.