Artist Statement
Rebecca Katz received her BA in Art History from Duke University and her MFA in Printmaking from California College of the Arts. Her artwork combines her love for animals with a critical wit about the state of our world.
Animals provide a connection, a point of passage, and a glimpse into seeing the world differently. How is their understanding of the world the same or different than our experiences?
Animals have language. Even if we don’t know what they are saying, their forms of communication are complex and varied. For example, elephants communicate with low frequency calls beyond the range of human hearing. And elephants use their feet to send signals through the ground to reach elephants up to twenty miles away. Monkeys can communicate not only with each other, but also with other species—they share the same words for “snake in tree” and “snake on the ground,” so that everyone knows where to look.
The concept of sentience is the ability to feel, perceive, or experience subjectivity and awareness. Scientific studies have demonstrated that a wide variety of species experience emotions. For example, elephants grieve, rats are merciful, and dolphins care for their aging elders. Katz’s artwork may convey animals’ capacity for full range of emotions, such as joy, grief, deceit, and empathy.
In addition, many animals are indicators of what’s happening to our ecosystems. The sensitive permeable skin of frogs and other amphibians makes them early indicators of toxins in the environment—they are one of the first species to show adverse reactions to disruptions in the climate.
The prints suggest the multi-layered interactions and immeasurable value of our shared experiences with animals. Aren’t animals as important to the human psyche and collective imagination as food and shelter? Anyone who has lived with companion animals has witnessed that animals have individual personalities. Our friendships with animals may be as vital as our friendships with other people.
Regarding the technique for the Excavation Series
The technique used to create the multi-process “excavation” prints entails coating Arches 88 paper with several transparent base layers followed by numerous layers of ink. After the layers of ink have dried, I use sandpaper to remove ink, thereby excavating colors and imagery below the surface. I print an additional image as a final layer. The results are surprising and experimental. No two prints are ever the same.