Inspiration for my monoprints and Polaroid photographs comes from observing nature whether it is finding solace and calm or reflections on climate change. Frequently I work in series to tell a story. I am intrigued by the complexity of color, patterns, and structural elements in our environment.
About the Artist
Rosemary received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History with a minor in studio art from the University of Maryland in College Park. She pursued graduate studies in Library and Archives Conservation at Columbia University in New York specializing in paper and book conservation. After completing internships at the Library of Congress and the Folger Shakespeare Library she went to work at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery as a paper conservator and spent her professional career of nearly thirty years in that position. The study of artists’ materials and techniques as well as the history of photography and photographic processes were essential to her work, as well as her creative endeavors. Her decision to pursue Polaroid photography began almost ten years ago. Shortly before the Covid-19 pandemic she started working on monoprints during the lockdown and has continued ever since. She has exhibited her Polaroid images and monoprints extensively in juried group shows in the Eastern US.Rosemary Fallon website View Website Rosemary Fallon website Purchase Art
Artist's Statement
The Polaroid images have a dream-like, painterly quality that evoke a distant time and place. The unique characteristics, or "artifacts", of the film development are part of its charm. There is an unpredictability of the function of the vintage cameras and sheet film, which must be shielded from light immediately upon ejection for at least 15 minutes. I engage with nature to create my images, and use a combination of vintage and contemporary Polaroid SX-70 and 600 films with vintage cameras, scan the images and digitally manipulate to depict a narrative about the natural world. The photographs are a marriage between analog and digital. My inkjet, printed images are on Japanese kozo papers. These papers have lovely translucency and rich fibrous surfaces that become integral elements of the artworks. The monoprints are made with a gel plate and acrylics paints. Each print is unique and immediate. Such is the allure. They can include various materials to create surface texture and additional hand applied media, such as kozo paper, charcoal, graphite, colored pencils and watercolor. I print on a variety of papers, smooth to textured and light to heavyweightFeatured Work
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