Shifting by Cathleen Ficht

My work challenges the eye to open wider, eliciting the inquisitive gaze.  This creates a unique experience by using the movement and life within a disturbed surface.  Water is a major theme in my work because of its unpredictable and quixotic nature.   I take the time to replicate by drawing a photograph that I take creating a variety of drawings and print media such as photogravure, photo lithography and stone lithography.  Through meticulous work, the relationships between the reference photographs and drawings are revealed, yet evolved.  It is not merely about the accurate representation, but what is happening within and beyond that surface.  The process requires intricate examination to uncover new lines, shapes, and images creating new orders and relationships. By recreating textures and lines, a more obscured surface emerges inviting the viewer to take a closer look and get lost in its complexities.  This intimacy gives greater depth to the piece and creates a more haptic quality, the tactility and its effect on the observer.  With each viewing it is easy to become lost within each piece and uncover new scenes, images, or figures. There is always something new to be uncovered through my process. After recreating such detail-oriented images reducing recognizable imagery your mind creates its own images and stories for itself.  My work strives to capture something that is in flux, the often-unrealized beauty in common objects at a certain moment in time. Capturing an image of uncontrollable forces in nature or time reveals an unknown beauty.