Kristen McClarty | The Forever Kiss, 2024
Woodblock
Media Dimensions: 66 x 97 cm
Image Dimensions: 66 x 97 cm
Edition of 9
Framed/unframed
Kristen McClarty is a South African printmaker working in Cape Town. While McClarty has practiced as an artist since 2011, her approach and vernacular are informed by her previous career in law. McClarty is a member of the South African collective The Printing Girls. McClarty’s ongoing series A Sense of Place explores time and space as she interacts with her environment, walking the coastal paths near Kommetjie, where she lives and works, always discovering new elements that catch her imagination. In “The Forever Kiss” a pair of lichen covered coastal rocks lean in, almost touching, caught forever in that moment of anticipation of kiss. Like Meoto Iwa, the Wedded Rocks in the ocean near Futami, Japan, this woodcut speaks to an ancient love, a strength in togetherness that transcends time and a hunger to be one. *“Come very close and let the world drop away. Feel the charge that jumps the space between us. Lean a little closer. Almost touching. Now let us hold onto this moment forever. Let the world go on without us. The wind howl through the gaps. The ocean wash over us in big seas. Let us stay in this forever kiss.”* “Yellow rocks on a grey morning” is a more literal translation of space to woodcut, but McClarty shifts her process to work primarily with graphite powder. The minimal palette combined with a brushed grain and carving that submits to the woodblock, gives the piece a certain looseness, a little moody and fleeting. McClarty has exhibited in the UK at the Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair (2022, 2023, 2024), The London Art Fair (2024) as well as widely in South Africa. Her work is held in private and public collections in South Africa, and private collections worldwide.
Woodblock
Media Dimensions: 66 x 97 cm
Image Dimensions: 66 x 97 cm
Edition of 9
Framed/unframed
Kristen McClarty is a South African printmaker working in Cape Town. While McClarty has practiced as an artist since 2011, her approach and vernacular are informed by her previous career in law. McClarty is a member of the South African collective The Printing Girls. McClarty’s ongoing series A Sense of Place explores time and space as she interacts with her environment, walking the coastal paths near Kommetjie, where she lives and works, always discovering new elements that catch her imagination. In “The Forever Kiss” a pair of lichen covered coastal rocks lean in, almost touching, caught forever in that moment of anticipation of kiss. Like Meoto Iwa, the Wedded Rocks in the ocean near Futami, Japan, this woodcut speaks to an ancient love, a strength in togetherness that transcends time and a hunger to be one. *“Come very close and let the world drop away. Feel the charge that jumps the space between us. Lean a little closer. Almost touching. Now let us hold onto this moment forever. Let the world go on without us. The wind howl through the gaps. The ocean wash over us in big seas. Let us stay in this forever kiss.”* “Yellow rocks on a grey morning” is a more literal translation of space to woodcut, but McClarty shifts her process to work primarily with graphite powder. The minimal palette combined with a brushed grain and carving that submits to the woodblock, gives the piece a certain looseness, a little moody and fleeting. McClarty has exhibited in the UK at the Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair (2022, 2023, 2024), The London Art Fair (2024) as well as widely in South Africa. Her work is held in private and public collections in South Africa, and private collections worldwide.
Woodblock
Media Dimensions: 66 x 97 cm
Image Dimensions: 66 x 97 cm
Edition of 9
Framed/unframed
Kristen McClarty is a South African printmaker working in Cape Town. While McClarty has practiced as an artist since 2011, her approach and vernacular are informed by her previous career in law. McClarty is a member of the South African collective The Printing Girls. McClarty’s ongoing series A Sense of Place explores time and space as she interacts with her environment, walking the coastal paths near Kommetjie, where she lives and works, always discovering new elements that catch her imagination. In “The Forever Kiss” a pair of lichen covered coastal rocks lean in, almost touching, caught forever in that moment of anticipation of kiss. Like Meoto Iwa, the Wedded Rocks in the ocean near Futami, Japan, this woodcut speaks to an ancient love, a strength in togetherness that transcends time and a hunger to be one. *“Come very close and let the world drop away. Feel the charge that jumps the space between us. Lean a little closer. Almost touching. Now let us hold onto this moment forever. Let the world go on without us. The wind howl through the gaps. The ocean wash over us in big seas. Let us stay in this forever kiss.”* “Yellow rocks on a grey morning” is a more literal translation of space to woodcut, but McClarty shifts her process to work primarily with graphite powder. The minimal palette combined with a brushed grain and carving that submits to the woodblock, gives the piece a certain looseness, a little moody and fleeting. McClarty has exhibited in the UK at the Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair (2022, 2023, 2024), The London Art Fair (2024) as well as widely in South Africa. Her work is held in private and public collections in South Africa, and private collections worldwide.
