Patricia Olynyk

Statement:

My current work has developed from an interest in Eastern philosophy and mythology and almost four years of research as a visiting scholar in Japan. Through my print/mixed media and digital media works, I address issues of extricating oneself from a static position to rethink the nature of identity and the authentic self in the context of shifting environmental and cultural frameworks. An ongoing investigation of those primary forces and values that initiate transformation and shape identity has evolved into a search for personal icons, divine proportion in nature and transitional and hybrid identities. This search permeates and informs my work, transforming metaphors into images and objects of contemplation.

The work begins with hand-drawn images, schematic drawings, and script from archaic texts that I print using lithographic and digital processes. Once an archive of printed material is collected, I produce a stock of handmade paper utilizing Japanese traditional materials and methods of production. Finally, the images are collaged onto the handmade paper and combined with woodblock, collagraph, monoprint, persimmon tannin and oil to enhance the diaphanous quality of each layer. I often emphasize the relationship between the hand-drawn images themselves and the material quality of the paper from which they emerge. Organic forms reference the material "stuff" that has metamorphosed into paper, tracing their quintessential substance back to their origins. Each physically charged element shifts and transmutes, reaffirming the essential character of identity in constant flux.