ADELE ROBERTS

Title of series: Changes

Media: fine art prints combining traditional and digital printmaking techniques

Artist's Statement:

My artwork draws upon a lifelong fascination with history, myth, faith and superstition. I am very curious regarding the indistinct threshold separating (or linking) inner and outer realities, and the human struggle to reconcile perceived differences between these realms. Particularly intriguing to me are epic collisions involving natural and supernatural forces, destiny, providence and apparently random interventions of chance and luck. I frequently employ hexagrams, runic devices, calligraphic signs, visual metaphors relating to fate, and silhouettes of animals reputed to be sacred messengers or portents of doom. These are juxtaposed with imagery appropriated from various news media and hi-tech iconography of  computers and cyborgs.

 About the Exhibit:

"Change," a selection of prints from most recent series, was inspired by daily readings of the I Ching (Chinese 'Book of Changes') randomly chosen September 11 through October 11, 2001. Over the course of the following two years, those readings were subjected to personal interpretation in relation to my response to world events such as those transpiring in Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq. The dark figures of women, children and ravens represent aspects of my own personality as well as universal human attributes. They are layered with visual tropes of navigation and divination, plus images taken from mass media, compiled using digital software and printed on a large-format digital printer.

About the Artist:

Currently, Adele is a Lecturer for the Art Department and the Women's Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has an MFA from UW-Madison (2003), a master's degree from the University of Alaska, Juneau (1985) in public administration with an emphasis in education, and a baccalaureate degree from Cornell University (1977). Her earlier professional background includes fifteen years working as an education administrator and trainer, but for the past decade she has focused on her own artwork, freelance graphic design, and teaching art in a variety of settings -- in parks, galleries and museums as well as classrooms from preschool through college--in New York, Alaska, Washington, and Wisconsin.