MAPPING SYMMETRIES
A Woodcut Exhibition of Layered Colors
from Lines Carved by Paired Strangers
During 17 Hikes in the
Rockefeller State Park Preserve
The Gallery at Rockefeller State Park Preserve, September 13 - October 25th, 2020
size 7, Neighbors on Hudson
click color prints for details and credits (page under construction)
Jeff White invited people he knew, but who usually did not know one another, to HIKE. LUNCH and CARVE.
size 17 Cherry Door
Over the course of a year, each group of between 2 and 4 traversed a different area of the Preserve's 55 miles of carriage paths.
After selecting a place to stop and eat, they took up to 1 hour to carve a line that entered one side of the block and exited another.
Only 17 of the 42 participants identify as visual artists.
Enjoying the physicality and spontanaeity of carving and tuning in to serendipity and happenstance of our paths
was more the objective than virtuosic mark making, which nonetheless yeilded beautiful results.
size 3 Pink Meridian
For the exhibition, the excursions were represented by both the color woodcuts and a photo-based image with documentary details.
size 12 Able Baker Blue
The verso of each woodcut also included details about the day.
Some stretched the definition of "a line" and one ditched the tools opting to scrape his plywood on a rock!
size 5 Pocantico
size 6 Jagged Little Hill
size 11 Raven's Rock
John Andrews, besides carving on Raven's Rock (above), lent his expertise screen printing Jeff's images from 9 of the respective hikes over his white, woodcut printed, stretched domino forms.
When the pandemic shut down the print shops, Matt Barteluce at Guttenberg Arts printed inkjet transparencies for the remaining 8, which Jeff laid over the dominos. The dominos are a subtle formal element in this project and a conceptual one in much of Jeff's work which relates to themes of pairity, reciprocity, balance and simultaneity.
size 16 Arctic Lime
On several occassions, participants came to Jeff's home studio to take part in pulling the first proofs.
size 4 Amber Canter
Natalia Woodward of Batflower Press (pictured above) lent her skills to print the letterpress on the 17 page accordion book, Stick Program (below)
Click this image to see a video about the making of this book
size 9 Casualties on Eagle Hill
size 10 Rockwood Wax Bean
size 13 Aqueduct (Peggy's Way)
size 15 Swan Lake Erratic
size 1 Lemon Boy
size 8 Accoustic Buttermilk
size 14 Off Leash
14 of the 17 hikes were complete but lots of printing remained when the pandemic ushered in a new reality for all of us. In May, curator Audrey Leeds suggested a mini-series depicting the Japanese tree peonies that were in bloom outside the gallery. Below is a video about the process and the three prints that resulted.
size 7 The Long Path (Yatsuka Cho)
size 1, All But Blue & size 9, Not the End
Carvers, in the order they hiked:
Kaia White, student (9), b. NYC
Adelie White, student (11), b. Sleepy Hollow NY
Natalia Woodward, printmaker, b. Pereia, Colombia
Stetson Hundgen, entrepreneur, b. Westchester, NY
Reinhard Bek, sculpture conservator, b. Goppingen, Germany
Rebekka Bek, student (8), b. NYC
Jared Beasley, author, b. Decatur, AL
Tim Thayer, painter, b. San Francisco, CA
Norm Dodge, musician, b. North Tarrytown, NY
Nancy Scorcia, musician, b. Brooklyn, NY
Rachel Abrams, artist, b. St. Louis, MO
Lorrie Fredette, artist, b. MA
Jodi Hauptman, MoMA curator, b. NYC
Gergory Clarick, lawyer, b. Perth Amboy, NJ
Lynn Moffat, homemaker, b. Queens, NY
Ken Wray, Mayor of Sleepy Hollow, b. Newport, CA
Heather Lau, neurologist, b. Bethpage, NY
Joyce Markovics, author, b. Greenwich, CT
Jaron Benjamin, community organizer, b. Tulsa, OK
Jeff Dietz, photographer, b. Hudson, MA
John Andrews, printmaker, b Salt Lake City, UT
Christopher Manning, artist educator, Mt. Kisco, NY
Slavko Djuric, artist educator, Kragujevac, Yugoslavia
Erin Carney, artist educator, b. Kalamazoo, MI
Kristie Valentine, artist educator, b. Montclair, NJ
Peter Iskenderian, state park manager, b. Bronx, NY
Ryan Nuckel, non-profit admin, b. NYC
Emily Cushman, MoMA researcher, b. St. Louis, MO
Caitlin Lightfoot, jewelry maker, b. Santa Monica, CA
Humphrey Newland, neighbor, CDL, b. St. Ann, Jamaica
Bill Teague, neighbor, CDL, pilot, veteran, b. Tarrytown, NY
Edward Bear Miller, artist educator, b. Washington DC
Johanny Pena, social worker, b. Dominican Republic
Jane Kang Lawrence, artist educator, b. Passaic, NJ
Nicole Marandola, ICU nurse, b. Syosset, NY
Robbins Gottlock, Phelps doctor, b. Albuquerque, NM
Alyssa Jacobs, Dir. Constituent Svcs., State Assembly, b. Hackensack, NJ