Living out in the country has been a major influence on my present work, and of late, the recent drought here in Texas and what it has done to our pond has been the major source in these recent works.  Our pond has dried up twice this summer. The first time it dried up was the most devastating as we lost all our fish, frogs, turtles and many more organisms that help sustain life around the pond.  The many birds, reptiles, and animals that frequent the pond have had their lives severely altered.  As of now, after a recent rain a few weeks ago, we have water again but it will take years to form the ecosystem that existed before the drought.

In other works, the content is about the cycle of life, a kind of eternal dance that not only starts and ends and repeats, but leaves echoes that remain for a time. The images and diagrams of the moon are the most prominent recurring objects in my work and represent for me the cycles of the seasons and the renewal of life.  Other recurring images are shells that leave the negative imprint of the living matter they once contained, spiral galaxies that suggest creation, evolution, and the gravitational pull into the center and the unknown, and additional visual parallels for the cyclic nature of birth, death, and regeneration such as plants, bees, and microscopic organisms.

Throughout my schooling and career, I have been interested in how the parts work together to create the whole. As a printmaker, the processes alone fulfill this constant need to build, whether assembling stencils or building onto plates. Combined with my imagery pulled from family traditions of quilting, I hope to create a body of work that inspires an appreciation of feminine and feminist representations in art and art-making.

My experience creating hand-pulled woodblock prints spans fifteen years—a lot of time for the quiet meditation of carving and the splinters that go with it. I print without machinery, using palm gouges to carve and a simple wooden spoon as my press. I only make one print because in our times of material and media abundance only one is necessary. I work reductively, carving and printing in stages so that each block is reduced or destroyed as the image is produced and created. Each image remains singular, thus sacred, reflecting one experience in time.

The many contrasts inherent in these woodblock prints keep me engaged—the fast gestural line that is carved slowly, a random splash that takes hours to create, the raised rough wood becoming a dark smooth inked line, the obsessive pattern throughout providing both unity and noise.

Through my imagery I seek to obfuscate, deconstruct, reassemble and transform my everyday relationships with the shapes and patterns of the world. I seek images which deliberately set on edge the associations we bring to forms as our perceptual associations drive our entire way of thinking. I am not a symbolist nor a pure abstractionist: I use forms which might mean many things, have several names, or be both whimsical and terribly dark at the same time. The images serve as a metaphor between the visual impression of something and the conjuring of its name. Each image is an invitation to explore our ever-changing stream of perceptions and from that experience gain a type of wisdom for which there are no words.

Pecks etchings explore the expressions of the various roles that women portray. The mystery, the glamour and the spirit of the female consciousness. Symbols of patience, nurturer and healer celebrating the mystical nature of the feminine spirit.

Most of my art career, I have spent painting. I was introduced to the printing process at Flatbed Press in Austin, Texas. I was taken in by the simplicity of the lines and the clarity of the images. I fell in love with the process or what I call the ritual. The dance between the artist, the copper plate and the flatbed press.

Most of my Etchings are created on recycled copper. Some pieces have scratches and impurities before I start but this just adds a uniqueness of working with recycled materials.

Growing up in the desert of New Mexico, I thought everyone was an artist. I was always exposed to local art and artists that came to New Mexico to study. Art is the vehicle I use to express the images that spring from my dreams and meditation, creating strength and health which can be drawn upon to bring greater happiness and contentment to our lives. Through my art, I am constantly trying to tap those hidden resources and communicate to the viewer of my work some of those feelings of joy and expansion.

http://www.mac.com/junannepeck

I enjoy blending narrative and portraiture (and sometimes a bit of humor) into my paintings and prints. My style is influenced by the German Expressionists and the American Social Realists.

I view my work as a collaboration with nature. I make handmade paper with plant materials from my garden. My photographs are also mainly taken in my garden or on hikes. I am fascinated with symbols and intricate patterns that, to me, give glimpses and insights into to the great mysteries of life.

Melanie Wade Leslie is an experimental media artist and printmaker with an affinity for color and texture.  Her work embodies the historically iconic and metaphorically rich and expressive imagery of the horse. Her focus is not necessarily upon the physical aspect of individual breeds, but upon the unique and universal attributes of legendary equus and its dialog with the human spirit.