The Art of Gail Morrison

Insects are everywhere, and although they sometimes bother us, they are just trying to make their way in the world like everybody else. They are small, but their bodies have fascinating shapes and structures. They are more often treated as pests than as our fellow creatures, but I hope you will look at them a little differently. The more closely you look, the more interesting they become.

For the digital portraits, I digitized pen-and-ink drawings and added layers of abstract imagery and textures, beginning with images based on fractal patterns. The pixels of all of these interact with each other in varying ways and to varying degrees to intensify the complexity of the insects’ environment.

For the monoprints, the drawings were transferred to photopolymer etching plates. Exposed by the sun and developed by water, the plates can be inked and printed like any other etching plate. I print unique monotype backgrounds and then, in a second pass through the press, print the etching over the background.