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Sue Carrie Drummond

ARTIST BIO


Sue Carrie Drummond b. 1990, Santa Ana, El Salvador 

Sue Carrie Drummond received her MFA in Book Arts and Printmaking from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA. She also has a BA in Studio Art with a minor in Art History. Her current work investigates different forms of damage and deterioration by mapping intimate experiences and relationships that permanently mark us. She makes references to the body as well as clothing and primarily works with papermaking, relief printing, and the book form. Many of her works incorporate repetitive processes such as crochet and knit, as well as meticulous handwork. Drummond has exhibited widely and received several curatorial invitations to participate in prestigious shows at venues such as Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, Abecedarian Gallery, and the Temple Contemporary. She attended Penland School of Crafts as an assistant in paper making during the summer of 2015. Most recently she completed a residency at Minnesota Center for Book Arts and was awarded the CBAA Artist’s Book Residency at Women’s Studio Workshop, which is scheduled for the summer of 2017. She has taught workshops at Purple Word Center for Book and Paper Arts and at Minnesota Center for Book Arts. She was also considered for the Victor Hammer Fellowship at Wells College. Drummond is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Millsaps College in Jackson, MS where she teaches drawing, painting, and printmaking.


ARTIST'S STATEMENT

We seek to give our pain value, importance, or significance. We return to it, wallow in it, hold onto it. The emotional pain we experience is the residue of past moments or encounters, alluding to personal narratives that cannot be erased. In my work I explore representations for this pain, creating a visual language with which to address the cyclical nature of damage and repair. I revel in the suggestive nature of degradation drawn to tattered edges, worn surfaces, and ragged openings in need of mending. Through my studio investigations I examine forms of damage and deterioration mapping the accumulation of everyday losses, both small and large, and examine how they compile over time leaving a mark upon us. More specifically I draw from my intimate relationships and experiences as a way to explore these ideas while also commenting on larger themes of nostalgia, loss, and absence. I consistently consider surface: what sits above, within, or below, questioning what is revealed or concealed? What is hidden, mended, or exposed? The physical layering of materials and processes communicates how these moments accrue over time, further emphasizing acts of damage or repair. Allowing the process to become concept as well, I employ repetition to highlight futile attempts to mask the past.

http://www.suecarriedrummond.com/



ARTIST'S WORK

RAW (2015)

Monotypes on waxed Hosho and Mulberry papers 

Monotypes pulled on a Vandercook SP-20. They
are created by dropping mineral spirits onto a plexiglass base and allowing the chemicals to
break through the ink. The mineral spirits form
fluid marks that resemble tears or wounds. I fill in the openings with darker colors referencing scabbing and by waxing the paper I give these prints a flesh-like quality. The white gallery wall becomes an examination space, the stark white referencing a clinical environment. Each corner is pulled taut with a T-Pin. The prints become specimens on the wall laid out raw for the viewers to inspect. 




TROVE (2015)

Handmade paper, translucent Yupo, letterpress 

This work consists of fifteen objects resembling books, but instead of pages on the inside they contain an inset box holding a piece of handmade paper. In this work the paper within the inset acts as a signifier for the body, a fragment standing in for the whole suggesting the accumulation and storage of past experiences. The inset box is often used in book conservation and in Trove each one is labeled with a date and age. The objects become a collection of reliquaries, which hold a metaphorical piece of the body. 



THROUGH AND THROUGH (2015)

Waxed handmade paper and sewing thread The handmade paper is dyed a deep red in order to reference the interior body. Throughout the text block the pages are perforated with varying force and depth, visually evoking the experience of damage and deterioration. The book begins with very shallow marks that are hardly visible, but as the book progresses the perforations become more noticeable and the waxed paper more vulnerable to breakage. I introduce thread as a mending element that holds the page together or as an attempt to fill in holes within the sheet. Sometimes it strengthens the surface and holds the paper together, while serving as a useless repair in others. 



ADORNED (2015-2016)

Letterpress printing, blind embossing, and collographs on waxed handmade paper and cotton blowouts on abaca. The inspiration for this book comes from considering the way clothing imposes and impresses itself on the body. The pages alternate between cotton blowouts of lace patterns on translucent abaca and flesh toned sheets of paper embossed with the same pattern. Throughout the progression of the book, the garment deteriorates but the flesh underneath continues to carry the mark of the fabric even once the lace is gone. This process mimics the way the remnants of our experiences exist with us in the present, despite the moment being over and gone. The text explores how an experience can mark you and make it difficult to move forward without the expectation that history will repeat itself.

This book was created while in residence at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts during the late summer of 2015. It was bound in 2016.



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