CATHERINE KERNAN

Echo Location #25Echo Location #25, woodcut monoprint, 19" x 59", on washi paper

Echo Location is a series of woodcut monoprints from 2022 – 2023 using soy based Akua Intaglio inks.

Working at the interface between printmaking and painting, these singular prints are the result of combining multiple large-scale woodblocks and offsets to polycarbonate plates. By never inking the same way twice, using many viscosity rolls, and rarely printing directly from the blocks to paper, the process remains engaging and unpredictable.
The images are metaphors for the erratic, often confusing, sometimes revelatory psychological path we must all navigate through times of collision and confession. Occasionally the pathway is clear, but the destination is an aspiration, not a certainty. My visual vocabulary is one of fragmentation, interruption, reflection, and variation.
Although abstract, the works are grounded in my direct observation of nature—specifically one lake in upstate New York that I have returned to my entire life, stimulated by the changeable perceptions of light on the water, foliage, and depths below the surface. Underlying this work is my belief that human relationships with the earth are dynamic and interactive, but also fragile.