I Saw You Under the Fig Tree by Mackenzie Hawk

The creative intent behind my work is about spending time looking at, studying, and recreating the world as I see it. I find places, objects, or scenes that are fascinating to me. I have so much joy in getting to know my subject on an intimate level. I utilize mark and color to create new and interesting perspectives of the mundane, discovering new relationships that create unity or tension. I believe that the world is constantly changing, and for that reason, it’s my job to notice the unnoticed, and make the invisible, visible. It’s important that I use printmaking for these creative intentions because of how much I value the process. Printmaking offers physicality, which for me, connects to process. I’m drawn to the act of carving away a wooden block, scratching into a copper plate, graining a lithography stone, and even pulling ink across a silkscreen. There’s a great physicality to the matrix I work with. I am intrigued by how there’s this physical thing viewers may never see, while I know it personally. Printmaking is the relationship between artist and matrix. I consider printmaking to be intimate, because there's a unique vulnerability within some processes that I risk in trying to try new things. The risk that it might not go to plan and evolve through the journey, makes my work stronger, because I am learning and finding things as I create. Beyond this, I find joy in trying new or weird things in printmaking, almost like experimentations. I like playing with linear & drawn elements in screen printing, or interesting combinations of other print processes. Every part of my creativity revolves around play and allowing the thing to change as the process goes on. I hope my work highlights the mystery of the mundane. There is an inability to fully know things, sometimes not even being able to identify them. This appears visually when parts of my work reveal tension or strange relationships. This also happens in subject matter as well, as I’m finding specific moments of the mundane that are different and interesting. My work is about the unknown and unseen, hoping to leave the viewer wondering where they can find that sort of mystery in their own life.