Meredith Turshen

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Artist Statement

I am an artist, teacher and writer living in Hoboken and teaching at Rutgers University in New Brunswick. I exhibit regularly in the New York metropolitan region. Through my artwork I reflect on nature in landscape and still life, on the grace, whimsy and mystery of the human figure, and on the magic and tensions in relations between people. I also like to represent abstract ideas non-figuratively.

This series of mixed media mounted on canvas explores the use of photographs—polaroids and polaroid transfers—combined with encaustics and monoprinting. All of the photos are my own, taken in the many places I have visited: an inveterate traveler, I have spent long periods in Europe and Africa and made short trips to China, Russia, the Middle East and North Africa. I am caught by the beauty of landscape, the romance of ancient ruins, and the troubled history of archeological sites. Most recently I have been working with encaustics, a technique that lends itself to incorporating found objects in three-dimensional assemblages.

Monotype, my main medium of expression, is a technique used to create a single print by transferring to paper an image that is painted on a metal plate. I work in oils on Arches and Pescia rag papers and vellum, and I use my own handmade papers as plates. An etching press makes the transfer. The result is a print with painterly textures and surface effects that cannot be obtained by working directly on paper. Some of the prints are further developed with oils, oil pastels, and colored pencils. Monotype offers a unique opportunity to capture the gesture of drawing in an oil painting. The rapidity of monotype printing enables me to maintain the immediacy of “handwriting” and to express a wide range of moods.