The most simple can be so superb...

Nature provides an abundance of inspiration for the inquisitive eye. Quiet stencils created of graceful leaves on stretched boughs; frilly ferns sway in all directions; bark skin textures appear as landscapes. Though inherent color green is conjured in one's mind, it takes a true artist to creatively develop the form celebrating pattern afresh.

In the one-room, one-woman exhibit at the NJ Audubon Wayrick Wildlife Art Gallery, teaching artist and designer Karen Fuchs has focused her expression as such. In cyan-blue prints called cyanotypes, her expressive art is impressively displayed on fabric, watercolor paper, and linen, the images becoming part of the actual surface.


With a background in weaving, textile design, and interior architecture, I'm interested in the connections between art, science and design. ~ Karen Fuchs

Animal, Vegetable, Mineral - wall collage

Ideas investigated include the intersection between man and nature, geometry and abstraction, collecting and documentation. ~ Karen Fuchs

Man, the nature of - cyanotype

Branching - cyanotype on fabric

Ferns - cyanotype on fabric

Kale Clouds - cyanotype on linen

 

Plug-in - cyanotype on fabric

I loved the predominant denim mood of the exhibit. It was fresh and on point with the au courant organic lifestyle movement. Karen's passion for patterning and arrangement is apparent. She testifies beauty is all around us, stimulating curiosity, inspiring creativity. It is a springboard of intellective influence.

Sycamore Bark Fragments - cyanotype on fabric

Through the Lens - cyanotype on fabric

Karen teaches workshops and courses at numerous visual arts centers in New Jersey, summer programs, and arboretums outside of the Garden State as well. The extensive curriculum she developed for children and adults alike "encourage us to look closely at what is right in front of us - to observe and draw, describe and study, then create art projects that allow for deeper meaning and understanding inspired by these concepts".

A novel accomplishment by framing nature... xoxo-Sonya