Melissa wozniak

earth-based artist

work

earth | water | fire | air | ether

Co-created with our living world, the handmade ink in this work explores material as a transmission of place. It is an energetic exchange between the earth, plant, and metal elements from which it was derived and the human who absorbs its qualities and ascribes meaning. Alchemical reactions occur between botanical species, the natural and manmade realm, macro and micro, internal and external.Physical reality is anchored by the laws of nature, but as a material, handmade ink is unpredictable: Color varies according to the nuances of individual plants. It changes as the ink ages. It is sensitive to pH and to the chemical makeup of the other ink it plays with.Plants and metals are animate beings, imbued with life force, and the recognition of this guides an intimate relationship with them from collection through creation. Many are locally salvaged or foraged in New York City—from an impound lot by Lincoln Tunnel, a Gowanus construction site, beachside overgrowth in the Rockaways, the petals of a festival offering that passed through the hands of hundreds of devotees. Some are remnants of time spent overseas, in South Africa and India. The indigo comes from a farm in Tennessee reforming the textile industry through regenerative natural dye crops.My intention is to be a channel through which the energetic essence of these elements can come to form and speak through shared consciousness.

Handmade natural ink, charcoal, and pencil on watercolor paper: rose, marigold, moringa, hibiscus, blue lotus, gladiolus, goldenrod, sumac, wild grape, pokeweed, buckthorn, acorn cap, oak gall, indigo, pomegranate, rooibos, copper scrap, iron scrap, turmeric, incense ash, gangajal, pH modifiers

Published in Still Point Arts Quarterly