From the studio: Mary Ann and Mace Wenniger

It seems goofy but the found object is essential to my collagraphs. I find old clothing intriguing, particularly those suggesting a remembered moment or treasured event. I cut these up, glue soak them, arrange them on a thin board and then print them, each time a different color, creating moods and story. This year I printed a 40’s girl scout uniform that I wore and an ancient disintegrating victorian wedding dress. These are part of a VESTMENT series: a first communion dress that a client’s great grandmother made for her, a baseball cap in hip pocket of shorts, some bitter, some sweet, all evocative, recalling poetess Sylvia Plath’s lines, “Each day demands we create our whole world over, disguised in coats of many-colored fictions.”

I have realized the huge relevance of my working with recycled stuff to make my Collagraphs. I have been making sustainable art! Fun. I have mentored several young printmakers sharing my unique, non-toxic approach to making prints: no acids, no metal plates, just found textured glueables, masonite, polymers, water and oil based inks, rag papers ands a wringer type intaglio press.

In jest, I have sometimes called collagraphs trash prints because they are made from old stuff. I assemble papers, tapes, fabrics, various textures and make richly colored images of the Cape Ann coast, its people in work and play mode and strong abstracts. They become monoprints or collagraphs through the use of oil based inks applied and worked until the image resonates clearly to me. The image is then carefully printed by me on specially prepared 100% rag paper by means of my French Tool press. That is what people will see when they come to Wenniger Cottage Studio during the Cape Ann Artisans tours.

The rocks and pebbled surfaces and the charmingly funky houses here on Cape Ann continue to demand textured articulation my way, using found materials Rocks and stones can be made from egg shells torn papers glued to my board bases. Living now at the end of Goose Cove, I have made several plates and prints of the tides and swirls looking out my windows, continuing my COVE series which is now of 27 different Cape Ann coves, all with funky names such as hoops hollow.

I have continued to work on a favorite series: PEOPLE AT WORK AND PLAY. Formerly Boston subjects, dominated: Red Sox, The Runners, Cholesterol Heaven. But now since moving to Gloucester four years ago, I have fallen for the hard working people here, their pride and sturdiness their grace and sense of place. I have dedicated the past year to documenting the Cobbler, the Fish Sellers, the Dory Builders, and most recently, The Farmers Market. Using my collagraph printmaking technique, I draw them, created the glued assemblages and printed them on 100% rag papers, each print a unique colorful painting. These are labor intensive because they have been based on reversed sketches and photographs in the field, since the finished collagraph plate prints backwards.

My most recent work shows the flexibility of the collagraph print. A plate can be made anywhere. When Mace broke his hip mid-December, I pulled out an unfinished plate and carried it and some tools with me in the Ambulance to Lahey, Burlington, and worked on it for the three days he was there. Oddly , it was about a scene observed of two men helping someone injured hop over waves at the beach. At the hospital, I saw that this image is everywhere. People walked in and out of the hospital within this same holding. I just finished proofing the image yesterday and am excited by its universality. Mace’s doc wants a print for the hospital.

Other new works are encaustics where I use colored waxes on a special homemade gesso prepared bases. This technique is a giant challenge. It needs to be done outside because of the fumes. When I began I used oriental strokes of wax symbols on solid color backgrounds. This morphed into series of seascapes put on tongue-in-groove wooden pieces found in trash barrels at the building center (again my queer trash interest). I want to combine the shimmer of encaustics and the textures and saturated colors of collagraphs but so far I have been frustrated by my experiments.

Mace has finished a beautiful bas relief of the child’s yoga pose. For our proposed ebook, Yoga and the Psalms, Mace drew with a crow quill pen, the tip of a feather or a stick to make line drawings of Yoga poses. Yoga friends have come to our house and held poses while he makes deft black line drawings. Even as Mace’s health has declined and the sketches have been less polished and even ragged, they are potent. However Mace has been working again. A wonderful guy, Greg Celafalo, has been posing.

Reflecting about our work, I recognize the collegiality of being part of a group of dedicated artists. Feeling their warmth and optimism has carried us forward. I am truly thankful to be part of Cape Ann Artisans.

wenniger cottage gallery
bringing prints to life