Michele Ratté
In the last several years many of us have experienced personal upheaval in one way or another -huge disruptions, tragedy, and adaptation. In my case my family was propelled, among other things, to move and make a new home in Maine, in order to be near dear friends, and by the ocean. I left a beloved studio in Vermont, but found a new community and studio in Belfast. The process of making these major shifts has brought about a parallel shift in my work.
For many years I worked on non-representational *collagraphic prints based on research and observation of fossils at a preserved ocean reef in northern Vermont. My interest focused on geological artifacts and a growing awareness of eons of extinction events. This work is an homage to our earliest living, breathing ancestors, and to my geologist father.
After moving to seaside Maine I had vivid dreams of present-day animals and plants. I began to draw them and use them in my work. It was like opening a new door, accessing new rooms- perhaps a door I’d walked by many times.
Concurrently I began dismantling previous work, some finished, some unfinished- much of it made using a unique gold printmaking process I developed with an inventing partner. It has been like shopping in my former work, taking it apart, re-imagining it, and re-assembling it in ways that have meaning for me now. - Michele Ratté