Painter, printmaker, teacher, Martha Slaymaker received her formal training at Edinboro College, Edinboro, Penn.; Ohio State University, Columbus; and The John Herron School of Art, Indiana University, Indianapolis. Her relief paintings and collagraph prints represent a deep appreciation of an ancient imprint upon our environment. Her surroundings reflects her emotional bond to the enormity of nature and respect for life. With an awaremess of the Pre-Columbian and contemporary Indian cultures, her current work is a natural outgrowth of earlier tactile surfaces of man-made and natural structures.
"My orientation leans toward exploring personal interests in archaeology, anthropology, and the mysticism and symbolism of ancient civilizations. The unanswered questions have taken me throughout Europe and Greece, China, South America, Mexico and Yucatan, and now again to the Southwest. I am led to investigate ancient sources in my work; thus my predilection for natural materials. Consequently, my collagraph printing is an extension of my painting."
Essentially, a collagraph print involves application of collage materials to a plate. The porosity of the materials used determines the value of the printing inks. Collage materials are adhered to the plate, then inked and wiped individually, in the traditional technique of etching. The bona tirer of each cllagraph print pulled in Martha Slaymaker's studio is in the permanant collection of the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
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