Eve Stockton
Printmaking
Lives and works in Alexandria, VA
(b. 1956, American)
Q: If you were a paint color in the hardware store, what would it be called? And can you describe the color?
A: “B’urple, a dark purple w/ brown.”
ARTIST STATEMENT
Ever since my childhood in rural Ohio, I have been inspired by close observation of nature and an eclectic interest in science. While my nature-based subject matter might seem familiar at first, closer observation reveals a tension between representation and abstraction as I reduce natural forms to their fundamental essence.
After a career in architecture followed by several “Mommy-track” years, I found myself in Fairfield County, CT where I quickly became involved in several arts organizations. I was doing stone-carving and metal-welding when I went to the Center for Contemporary Printmaking and took my first woodcut workshop. I quickly realized that I had found my medium. Now known for my large-scale woodcut prints, I have a “library” of over fifty, 3’x3’, carved woodblocks that I use in various combinations to investigate patterns, textures and visions of the natural world. My 3’x3’ prints can stand alone or be combined in a modular way to make larger images which I call “Ensembles”.
The main touchstone of my artwork is the observed natural world combined the imagined primordial world. Daily walks in Alexandria (home) and Nova Scotia (summer home) keep my inspiration fresh. Exposed to environmentalism in high-school, climate change and the degradation of the natural world is never far from my mind.
I challenge myself to depict nature from different angles. For example, through balanced abstraction, sometimes a woodcut image, like the Burst Series can allude to “micro” and “macro” at the same time. I take advantage of a deep-felt “zone” that pulls from nature, science, memory, and myth.
ABOUT
- Eve Stockton has a multifaceted background in architecture and art, having studied both architecture and fine arts at Princeton University (B.A.) and Yale University (Masters in Architecture).
- Once a registered architect, she worked for: Keyes, Condon, Florance & Associates (Washington, DC); Cesar Pelli and Associates (New Haven); and Davis Body and Associates (Manhattan).
- Long a full-time artist focusing on woodcut prints, Stockton’s artwork has been regularly featured on the cover of Nature Genetics Magazine.
- She has exhibited her work at the National Academy of Science, Keck Center, and at the National Institutes of Health.
- Her prints can be found in museum, corporate, hospital, university and private collections.
- She lives with her husband in Alexandria, VA and prints with master printer, Susan Goldman at Lily Press Studio, Rockville, MD.
PRESS + MEDIA
Primal Power
[Home and Design]
The secret sci-fi life of plants
[The Irish Times]
In the galleries: An artist conjures images from oceans to a micro view of nature
[The Washington Post]