Phyllis Thompson, “Making Memories: Telling Visual Stories,” September 27-November 2, 2019

Exhibition Catalogue, Paloma Barhaugh-Bordas and Phyllis Thompson

Phyllis Thompson’s solo exhibition, “Making Memories: Telling Visual Stories,” uses monotype printmaking to construct images rooted in childhood memories that focus on experiences both real and imagined with family and friends. She uses a monotype process akin to the direct process of collaging, because, like memory, it is an imperfect system that often brings forth surprising results. Her process includes visual elements such as patterned fabric, textured papers, and faded photographs to construct portraits of ancestors she has never met. These ancestors, whose solemn, reserved eyes stare forward into time, envision a moment where they may be both physically and systematically unshackled.

Thompson achieves this unshackling through the physical manipulation of the figures, removing them from the picture. This bodily removal leaves an echo of whiteness in the composition, and fading more still, until their silhouettes are akin to wallpaper. In this space, in the removal of physical form, Thompson’s spiritually present predecessors are abstracted; falling back and melding into wallpaper that is replete with vines, curlicue and blocks of color, all of which recall the artist’s earliest explorations in monotypes. The work presented therein becomes meditations on individuals, feelings, memories, and experiences, which are replayed through visual representation and allusion.