Carol Bohn is a Michigan artist who specializes in limited edition relief prints. "The technique is a fairly simple one," comments the artist. "After the producing the idea, the sketch, the larger drawing, the transfer, the color cartoon, etc., I just draw the subject on thin Bristol board. I then cut it out, roll ink on it, place it on the paper and roll it through the press. The inked up pieces are not placed on the paper all at once, however. They are rolled through the press individually. The actual piece of art has been through the press many times." Carol Bohn is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside in Kenosha. 
 

Artist statement: A Life of Spirit

"To understand my aesthetic roots and concepts, let me quote a few people who seem to convey my sentiments exactly. In Reflections from the Northern Country, Sigurd F. Olson devotes a chapter to beauty and says, "There is beauty everywhere if one can see and understand its meaning. It has a strange power of giving peace and joy...in seeing beauty...I always feel a lift of spirit and an afterglow of serenity and content." 

And then I remember Georgia O'Keefe's voice via earphones at the Chicago Art Institute. She was reflecting on a show she had hung, and as she stepped back from it she commented on how pretty it looked. She laughed and said, "You don't say that in the art world, but I don't care, that's how I feel."

When I step back from my art or have it hanging all around me, I too get this feeling, as in 'Ahh.' I sense wonder in the beauty of existence and feel that strange power in viewing beauty. I also realize that my work is not a political or social statement, but in its beauty I give it enough credence to stand on its own, to give something that is also needed in this world, a lift of spirit. 

The designs and colors in my prints, for the most part, have come from what I have seen or experienced. The first large print that I did is entitled Monches Metamorphosis. This reflects an abstract, not only of the yellow tiger swallowtail butterfly found while bicycling in the tiny town of Monches, Wisconsin, but it also represents the metamorphosis of change in my art, in the specific medium and style that I now work with. Another print, Darsana, is a print of a yellow rose that was given to me by a good friend. Darsana is an Indian word derived from the Varsnava religion that means a seeing, physical or spiritual, of the beautiful form of the Lord. My friend says he doesn't believe in a god, but when I see him tending his flowers I think he does." 

 

The Stargazers