Sedna
She chose to wed
an abusive man
When she fled
from him
her own father
to save himself
cut off her hands
and let her drown
Her revenge
was strong and swift
She withheld
all sustenance
making them
beg for their food
until they understood
her perfect right
for respect
Showing Her the Short Cut
I walk
home from town
with an old woman
showing her
a short cut
down a snowy road
through
red stick fences
We come
to a shallow brook
between rocky cliffs
where there is
something else
I want to
show her
I wade
into the water
and place my hands
in the paw prints
of a bear
who has drawn
her claws down
the green
mossy rocks
I become
both the bear
and the old woman
the other
and the self
Artist’s Statement
When I received the invitation to submit my work to Marks and Tracks, I decided to offer two of my limited edition coptic books: Furies and Grandmothers. The primary reason was that they include my poetry and printmaking—both representing marks and tracks.
The pages I chose to show include silkscreen prints of my hands and the paw print of a bear as well as a poem. I used letterpress printing for the text, which is indented into the paper like animal tracks in snow. As I thought further about my choices, I realized that the common denominator of the show’s theme is the element of repetition, which is apparent on several levels in these works. For instance, a limited edition is several repeated copies of the same book. Printmaking is a fundamental process of repetition. In these works, I used silkscreen as an exact replication of the same image and monoprinting as a variable repetition of textures, both of which are represented on these pages. Furthermore, the theme of this show appealed to me as each book begins with “making marks” in rough sketches and “tracking” the progression of pages throughout the process.