Kathryn
Cirincione

The Painting Process

Every day Kathryn Cirincione absorbs what is happening in the news, in society and in the culture, and carries it into the studio. There she lets her tools and the scraps she has collected lead the way, juxtaposing images that seem unrelated until they start to talk to each other. That, she says, is when something magical happens. Her range of techniques is wide: collagraphs, drypoint, etchings, lithographs, linocuts, screenprints, monotypes, watercolor, encaustic, handwork and mixed media, often layered together in a single piece. She prepares her own plates and screens and prints them herself. Many of her etchings are solar etchings, pulled by hand on a Griffin etching press, sometimes in three colors, sometimes finished with handwork, as in Monarch or Who Am I to Judge?. Editions are small and personal. Prints are signed and numbered in limited editions, from editions of six or ten up to fifty, and each comes with a certificate of authenticity. Her monotypes, such as Rain Dance and AUTUN, are unique originals. Other work happens away from the press. The encaustic portraits, among them JFK, GEORGE and EMANUEL, are built up in wax on wood panels. The Condiment Series, with Tomato 57, Sun*Maid and Classic Yellow, uses pigment and shellac on paper. The Oahu watercolors were painted on site in Hawaii, and her wildflower watercolors study single blooms like the Leopard Lily and Indian Paintbrush. Her subjects range from faith and history to politics, sports and the familiar objects of everyday life, drawn from a Southern Italian family of painters, church muralists and stained glass artists. What ties it together is her belief that creating art may be the most human of activities.