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Shelley Thorstensen

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Artist's statement

Our eyes are tactile organs. We trace form, the feel of what we see. Seeing and remembering are a practice. Integration requires paying attention, listening to each avenue of interpretation of what is remembered and what is not. On one’s knees, metaphorically or otherwise, is a most likely posture. It all gets tall that way, like a cathedral is tall.

Etching is a visual palindrome between maker and made. Pulling a print, I come face to face with myself working on the plate. The paper is only the thinnest veil between then and now. I feel like a scribe; like the one behind the Etch-a-Sketch glass, viewer and viewed simultaneously--except my work contains infinite possibilities for the uninterrupted curve.

I see my work as a direct expression of consciousness, as in a feedback loop where the bilateral symmetry of the plate to print directly reflects my body, my imprint. I see it as a method to look at myself in a mirror, a psychological means to literally face myself while making work.

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Shelley Thorstensen gallery

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