Gail Norfleet: connecting faraway places

Artist Statement

“Drawing has always been a big part of my practice, but I rely on other tools to come up with my compositions. Photography plays a big role. I have taken hundreds of pictures of New Mexico flowers. These portraits are referred to again and again. Digital copies are also used as collage, cut and pasted, and intermingled with areas of hand-painted acrylic. Recently, Neocolor water-soluble pastel has creeped into the work. Experimentation with materials and mixing media keeps things lively and interesting. The layered plexiglass pieces are never painted onsite. All is manipulated in the studio.

My training as a printmaker has influenced the way I work today. Early on, I was known for my monoprints that were painted on plexiglass and then printed on paper with an etching press. The technique was painterly and immediate. The ghost image left on the plexiglass was always intriguing. More and more, the possibility of using the painted plexiglass as the finished piece became apparent. The transparency, and looking through one layer to the next, set up all sorts of spatial possibilities.”