Chance Gellis

Robert Spellman painting of an approaching tornado.

Some time during the recent pandemic I started playing with the medium of gelli prints, a simple printmaking technique popular with children of all ages. The following series of prints were done placing scraps of plastic wrap onto the plate after inking. The results were totally unpredictable but the brownish tones and shapes that verge on recognizable images eerily suggest antique etchings. My experience of these is one of allowing the eye to locate scenes and images within the abstract arrangement - a practice that runs counter to the tenets of abstract expressionism where the work is a deliberate avoidance of imagery, suggested or deliberate. These prints allow the viewer to do either. A third possibility is noticing the specificity of the accidental shapes, they seem to be intentional and refer to themselves without reference to anything else.

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