Vie du Pacifique - Pacific Perimeter Print Exchange

This exhibition of prints opened recently at Estuary Arts Centre, Orewa, 

coordinated and curated by Celia Walker.

The project is an international exchange between print studios from around the Pacific perimeter and coordinated by  Jennifer Sanzaro-Nishimura and Jennifer Stuerzl in Australia. A group of five printmakers from Studio Printmakers were invited to take part and the inaugural exhibition of the exchange took place at Impress Studio and Gallery in Brisbane in November 2016.

The exhibition at Estuary Arts Centre includes the works of the printmakers from Studio Printmakers who took part plus a selection of prints from the previous exchange project including prints from Chile, Philippines, Vanuatu, Australia, Japan and New Zealand. 

Artists were invited to "explore their relationship with the Pacific Ocean culturally, as a source of life and beauty, a source of food, an element of nature and as a place of travel and recreation. They could also take into consideration the dumping ground for human and industrial discardments it has become, and other environmental or political concerns."

The full set of prints from the recent 2016 exchange will be exhibited at 

Whangarei Art Museum from 28th August to 26th September, 2017. 

The full collection of prints will then go into the art gallery's collection.

Participating Studio Printmakers members include 

Celia Walker, Kheang Ov, Nicola Ov, 

Ina Arraoui and Toni Hartill.

"Lifeblood" by Toni Hartill
Caustic etch lino, monotype, blind emboss.

My statement for my work:

 "Growing up in NZ meant I was never far from the sea whether we were in it, on it or under it. The sea is my anchor. It's where I feel grounded and where I return when in need of solace. It’s in my lifeblood through generations of seafaring folk. It’s integral to my identity as a New Zealander growing up with Maori mythology entwining our relationship to this land, Aotearoa and to the sea, te moana. To be at sea under an infinite sky allows me to put the woes of a modern world into perspective and to simply be in the moment."

I hoped to convey a sense of  my relationship with the ocean via an almost meditative quality through the use of printed and embossed patterning.  

A selection of prints for the previous print exchange 

are on display with the five recent works 

until 2nd April, 2017.

Thanks to Celia Walker for all her work in making this project 

happen in New Zealand for the 2016 project.

Its always great working with you!