Tricia Butski, “Semblance,” March 25 – May 6, 2016

Exhibit Catalog, Tricia Butski and Dorothy Fitzgerald

Tricia Buski’s most recent work examines issues related to memory. Through fixed portraiture, Butski explores both the profound limitations and the constant flux of consciousness. Her use of charcoal provides a material analog for the mind’s impermanence, fragility, and malleability. By challenging the boundaries between representation and abstraction while questioning the relationship between fluctuation and constancy, the works become as entangled and bewildered as our memories, thriving off of a natural yearning for clarity and drawing meaning out of partiality.

Butski’s process begins with photographs that she manipulates through an intentional alternation of high and low-tech methods. She stretches plastic film coated with Vaseline over a digital screen, distorting and obscuring the images. Butski re-photographs the image, often hundreds of times, repeating the cycle of manipulation and documentation. The final digital image functions as the reference for the drawing, only realized through the activity of drawing. She creates a representation that is neither real nor imagined. This process forms a conceptual procedure that mirrors the experience of recalling, reconstructing, and re-imagining that is at the center of what we call “remembering.”

Tricia Butski is a fine artist currently living and working in Buffalo, NY. Born and raised in Niagara Falls, Butski holds a BFA from Fredonia State University and an MFA from the University at Buffalo’s Department of Art. Butski is currently an instructor at Niagara County Community College and Erie Community College.