Carved & Colored: Portraits by Katherine Larocca

Start: March 23, 2013, 10 p.m.

End: March 24, 2013, 1 a.m.

Join us on March 23 for " Carved & Colored," a collection of artwork by printmaker Katherine Larocca.

Larocca is a graduate of Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts in Old Lyme. Her artwork has been on exhibit in Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont and Alabama. This is her third solo exhibit, so let's make it an awesome one! For more on Larocca, visit www.LaroccaGraphics.com.

Katherine Larcocca
My prints begin as sketches completed from observation. I draw what I see and capture it quickly using pen and ink. This free and loose medium allows me to work quickly as I sketch people walking in the street, eating at a diner or stepping through a doorway.

I finalize the sketches by redrawing them onto a block of linoleum. The borders of the print act as a container for this captured moment. As I carve the block the rapid, sketched lines become heavy, solidified marks. I print the linoleum block by hand (known as a hand rubbing). The once fleeting moment is now a permanent, compact image.

I am interested in narratives. Stories are beautiful and limitless when told within an image. The viewer uses the print to create their own fiction. In my wordless novel- still a work in progress- I strive to make each lino cut autonomous. The prints are independent from one another. They each tell their own short story but when assembled together, the prints create an ongoing narrative.

In my portraits, the narratives are told from my sitter’s expression or gesture. Their body language and characteristics reflect emotions and a physical likeness so that the viewer can imagine this person and create an anecdote. The original sketches for all these portraits are done directly from observation, completed with models, friends, or unknowing sitters captured in everyday life.