BOBBETTE ROSE

Media: Egg Tempera and Metal Patinas on Hand-made Paper

Artist Statement:

My work is an exploration of what lies beneath, what shows
through the cracks in our veneer and confounds the structures we
build. The grids, the walls, the order we seek to create are in
dynamic tension with the passion and movement beneath our
surfaces.

Built-up layers of paper pulp, pigment and collage materials evoke
a sense of archeological history, surfaces worn away by the flow of
time and events revealing echoes of past understandings to
current situations. The relentless movement of the flow of history is
constantly etching paths into our personal and communal landscapes.

About the Current Exhibit:

Manhole covers have become such a common object that often
they don't even register in our consciousness as we pass over
them. These entrances into the underground world of our refuse
offer entries into our spirits regarding the things we discard and
bury in our foundations.

In so many ways we come to forget we are even walking on such a
burial ground. The depiction of natural aging and weather reveals
a beauty which seeks to stir up contemplation on what is it that we
discard and hide from ourselves and the rest of our community in
our desire for sanitized beauty. But there is maybe a more
profound beauty to be found in the revelation and honoring of that
which we kill and bury in the sewers deeply laced through our
spiritual and physical "land."

About the Artist

Bobbette Rose received a graphic communications degree in
1978 and worked as a printer for Rimer Cardillo, a master
printmaker from Uruguay. She went on to earn her MFA from the
University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1989 in printmaking and
painting. In addition, she has worked as a designer in print, video
and web for the past 25 years and has received a number of
awards in both design and painting. She has taught design
classes and lead seminars and currently works in Public
Television in Communications. More work and information may be
found about Bobbette on her Web site at http://www.bobbetterose.com.