Constructing Nature

May 2017

Acadia Kandora, Department of Contemporary Art and Theater, Shepherd University

Constructing Nature is an abstracted woodblock series about the balance between the natural and constructed worlds. The work utilizes the idea of “building blocks” in reference to repetitive patterns in nature that make up larger natural forms such as honeycombs, crystals, or fungal structures to build compositions. These patterns are countered though imagery of technology and industrial architecture. By doing so I found a correlation between natural structures and man-made ones. Both nature and machines are systematic entities that have working parts, without some of these parts neither would function. With this in mind, I integrated them together to blur the line between the two. My process reflects this in a similar manner by blurring the line between traditional and contemporary post-digital printmaking processes. This technical and process oriented approach is integral in both the aesthetic and conceptual assertions in my final compositions.

Process

     My process combines traditional relief techniques with collage and digital fabrication to create large and small-scale prints. Starting with sketches that become digital designs in Adobe Illustrator, I separate each color onto a separate layer. This file is then brought into a 3D-modeling software. Depending on the scale of the desired print, there are two methods I could utilize. For large prints, I code and then use the CNC Mill, a robotic router, to cut my large plates from plywood. For small prints with many plates I utilize a subtractive digital engraving process with a laser-cutter. Both kinds of plates are then inked and hand printed though a press with up to 6 plates registered onto a single image.

Artist’s Biography

     Moving nine times throughout her childhood, Acadia Kandora was born in New Jersey, but didn’t stay there long. Constant change has given her an experimental drive to continue to create art that pushes traditional processes. Now a printmaker, Acadia started as a graphic designer who was interested in studio art. She funneled her design background into both sculpture and printmaking, and figured out how to combine the three mediums into one singular process. She has exhibited regionally at shows like the Ink It juried exhibition in Germantown, MD and the Art on Paper juried exhibition in Annapolis, MD. Acadia hopes to attend graduate school for an MFA in printmaking and continue to work with post-digital printmaking processes.