Reservoir: Heather Watkins & Louise Eastman at Planthouse, NYC

Installation views of my exhibition with Louise Eastman at Planthouse Gallery in New York. More information about the exhibition here: http://planthouse.net/reservoir-louise-eastman-and-heather-watkins/

New Website!

Hello! Here's the link to a new spot: 
heatherwatkinsstudio.com
Enjoy! 

Seeing Things

Seeing Things, nos. 1, 3, 12, 14, 24.  2015. Ink, linen. 13 x 16 in. each

New work included in my one-person exhibition, This Is The Only One, on view at PDX Contemporary Art, September 1-26, 2015. pdxcontemporaryart.com

The Soul Selects her own Society

Surfacing: Miller Meigs Collection sequence  2010–2013

I am honored to have my work included in the exhibition The Soul Selects her own Society: Women Artists from the Miller Meigs Collection at the Law Warschaw Gallery, Macalester College, MN, January 30–March 13, 2015. 

The exhibition includes work by Louise Bourgeois, Ann Hamilton, Jessica Jackson-Hutchins, Kristan Kennedy, Ana Mendieta, Kimsooja, Sam Taylor-Johnson, Su-Mei Tse, Sara VanDerBeek, Heather Watkins, Hannah Wilke,  and Bobbi Woods.

macalester.edu/gallery

HOURS

HOURS, 2014
Twenty-four hand-treated offset lithography printing plates with residual ink left to dry after printing in twenty-four custom-mixed shades of blue.

HOURS presented at the New York Art Book Fair

Using the medieval book of hours as a point of departure, Hours explores ideas of memory and time, ritual and alchemy. I devised a chemical process for the project, working directly on twenty-four offset printing plates that were used to print the pages of the book. On press, the treated plates accepted ink in surprising ways, creating analog images that "developed" through the process of printing. The images, printed in twenty-four shades of dark blue ink, are reminiscent of water and waves, rivulets and eddies, primordial creation and geological erosion. Each plate was used to print a press sheet, which was then folded down to create a sixteen-page signature in the finished book. Motifs repeat rhythmically across the spreads, and fingerprints and fold marks echo the ritualistic repetitions of the book's creation. The book is scaled for intimate interaction, with a multitude of bookmark ribbons that add to the composition in ways that change with every viewing.

Published by Container Corps and presented at the New York Art Book Fair, September 26-28, 2014.

384 pages
4.5 by 6 inches
Numbered edition of 150
Printed offset in 24 shades of blue, smyth sewn hardbound
 
My participation in the fair was supported in part by a Career Opportunity Grant from the Oregon Arts Commission.

Hours

Images of a book-in-progress, to be released this fall at the NY Art Book Fair, published by Container Corps. The book, Hours, comprises twenty-four signatures (shown collated in the image above), offset printed in a spectrum of hand-mixed blues. Images were prepared using a direct application of a toner-based fluid onto offset printing plates (one shown in second image above, after printing).