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New Architectural Abstractions: The Scaffold Series

June 5, 2019 by Iskra Leave a Comment

"Cloud Scaffold" print by Iskra Fine Art
“Cloud Scaffold,” Limited edition print.

Today I am excited to show some new additions to the Scaffold series. At construction sites I am always drawn to the scaffolding around buildings. I am fascinated by their diagrammatic quality, and the way they point to geometric systems in simultaneous plan view and elevation. They layer a grid of abstraction over the landscape of the built environment, with infinite variation. They are both a structure and a space: mostly space, enclosed by tenuous lines that can hold up a fleet of construction workers or a wall or the hull of a ship on shore. They are filigree and lattice, ornament and infrastructure.

"Sari Scaffold" print by Iskra
“Sari Scaffold,” limited edition print

When construction projects are draped in tarps it is like a huge theater project. The massive fabric becomes an archetype of the feminine, laying an atmosphere of mystery and sensuality over the hard grid. As I worked on “Sari Scaffold” it began to resemble the silk threads of a sari.

"Night Scaffold," print by Iskra
“Night Scaffold,” limited edition print

What I love about the scaffold theme is not just its abstract qualities, but its metaphors. If you build anything, whether it’s a house or a life, you need a structure to hold it up as you go. The structure can be a set of words, a song, a belief, or a beam you actually stand on while you reach. Sometimes the scaffold is simply a question. What if I walk out on the edge? What if I fall? And what will I see as I grab the rope and hang out in space seeing things I would never see any other way?

 

The Fifth Step print by Iskra
“The Fifth Step,” limited edition print

You could say the stair is the birth of the scaffold. This particular stair lived for about a year behind the opera house as it was being demolitioned and rebuilt. One day it disappeared – or perhaps it gave birth to a latticework of stairs that reach to the sky. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Digital Collage, Prints Tagged With: abstract art prints, architectural abstraction, Aurora Bridge repair project, iskra fine art prints, scaffolding art, social media coaching for artists

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Instagram post 2194492950900180841_1682569995 A large travel piece, 24x36, for the discriminating trucking company that sees the beauty in grime. I can’t seem to get over trucks. I remember shouting out to them on road trips when I was 6. My mother had married a new man who was a gambler, and they would drive all night to Las Vegas. For me, day dreaming in the back seat, the trucks made it all worthwhile.
Instagram post 2193017376281226308_1682569995 The Travelers Suite of 8 new prints is in my shop today, first link in bio. Postcards from the edge, between stillness and motion. This one is called “The Journey Through.” 16x12” image on a 22x17 sheet of German Etching rag paper.
Instagram post 2191258353097851975_1682569995 Please Come Back Before I Forget You. (Coast Starlight Journey)
Instagram post 2190321261471738946_1682569995 Do you have a movie landscape in your mind where you live part of the time? I live in #mccabeandmrsmiller which is almost entirely without music and filmed in opium smoke and snow. Color is not necessary to tell some stories, the ones you can’t forget and relive before you wake in the morning. The House by the River, limited edition print, 16x20”. From the new #traveler series.
Instagram post 2189550942678971612_1682569995 I’m working on travel pieces today. The glimpse and the overlay, from a trove of photos taken on a recent trip on the #CoastStarlight. A double exposure is not just a trick. Not an “edit“. It is an acknowledgment that we are never in just one place in time. You can ask yourself questions like, is the composition balanced? Or you can ask the existential version: 1) When is a splatter a flight of birds? 2) When is a blur a memory? 3) When is a memory a lie? 4) When is a lie the truth? 12.5x16” on 17x22” limited edition print on German Etching.
Instagram post 2188163148543116808_1682569995 Silver Train Vista, limited edition print 1/5 , 7”x10” in a 12 x16 frame. A quiet piece glimpsed from the #StarlightExpress. This is part of a series of affordable art prints that I sell framed and unframed. I haven’t worked out packaging and shipping yet, but if purchased locally in Seattle and picked up from my studio the framed piece is $150, unframed is $110. These will only exist as one very limited edition in one size.

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