limited run, artist commissioned, “suite of serigraphs” donated by Mr. John B Torinus Jr., Chairman – Serigraph Inc.
Marshes and Eskers: When the Torinus family originally invited me to visit West Bend I had very little concept of the magnitude and unique visual beauty of the Ice Age glacial influence on the contemporary landscape in Wisconsin. John’s wife, Kine, took me on footpaths and trails through the National Forests of the eastern Kettle Moraine. There I saw firsthand many extraordinarily picturesque creeks, hills, rocks, flowers and markings, the results of thousands of years of glacial evolution.
As an artist, I was fascinated by the concentration and profusion of eskers, kames, marshes and drumlins making up the surreal land contours reminding me of some kind of historic dreamscape filled with reminders of vast epic earth metamorphoses.
This inspired me to create a suite of serigraphs based not only on my visualization of the imagery surrounding me, but also of the feelings I experienced tasting the air, smelling the flowers and hiking in the mud. I sketched and worked with watercolors and collage, doing renderings at key locations, so as not to forget a particular color or texture. Later, I took photographs in the rain, in the mist and against the brilliant sunshine.
These seemingly random experiments and encounters added up to a personal esthetic discovery for me, allowing me to recall and develop new forms and color gradations in this suite of works whose theme is the Kettle Moraine. Finally, utilizing the technical expertise of Serigraph Inc. to stretch the medium, as it were, proved to me that a happy marriage of art and technology can coexist and communicate imagery in an accessible manner without sacrificing quality or high aspirations.
Arthur Secunda