Jungle Road - Laurie Lambrecht

Intermittently over a period of two years, Laurie Lambrecht photographed the lush habitat surrounding the Robert Rauschenberg Residency on Captiva Island, Florida. Inspired by the multi-layered and textured environment as well as the formal relationships between the plant and human life found there, she began printing her images on the soft surface of recycled newsprint to convey the irresistibly tactile nature of the place. This focus on patterns and texture, as well as a desire to work more directly with her hands, soon led to Lambrecht's Bark Cloth series, which is also included in this exhibition. Close-up photographs of trees are printed on linen and embroidered by the artist along the unique lines and patterns of the bark. Lambrecht writes, “I love that the bark of a tree can appear to be a topographical map, and how the outlines of the bark’s scales can read like rivers or mountains. I am using lines of embroidered thread as a visual guide through the bark’s imagined landscape.”