Artist's Statement

I like to capture the form and vitality of the human figure in motion. I work from the model's rapid gestures, turning them into "action poses" which I can relate to dance movement or everyday gestures.

I find that the medium of monoprint lends itself easily to depicting human forms and their movements in space. I cut stencils of the silhouetted forms and let them fall in random arrangements until I see interesting interactions or formations of figures. I take an arrangement and combine it with ink rolled on a plexiglass plate and with decorative papers applied as chine colle. The layers of chine colle help create a mood or act as a backdrop. The plate is then rolled through an intaglio press, and the result is a one-of-a-kind print, a monoprint.

By this process I am able to capture a moment of comedy or irony in human interactions, the beauty and sublimity of a dance pose, and sometimes the darker side of the human psyche. I feel I have glimpsed the human spirit in its different dimensions.

- Mary Carol Baird