​​​​​​​Silke Schelenz -Artist & Printmaker

My work spans from depicting urban scenes, atmospheric landscapes, silhouettes of people and objects.  I like to capture moments that intrude quiet places, stillness or  intimate moments. Most of the work is based on my  photographic images.

Historically printmaking involves a series of physical steps preparing a surface such as an etching plate or a silk screen to reproduce an 'image' so multiple copies can be made of the 'same'.

What holds my fascination is what happens when I subject my  photographic captured moments to the printmaking process. This never leads to a simple reproduction of the intended ‘object’ into a different medium like an etching or screen print. What seems to happen is an additional translation of the ‘creators’ emotional subjective, and subconscious state which is added to the image long after the original photograph has been taken.  The creative printmaking processes often encounters seemingly  random 'unexpected marks' that could be seen as 'mistakes' which feed into the creation of what becomes a new image in that moment of time. These ‘mistakes’ in the process  may seem random and unintentional marks but occur very much as part of the mental and physical state of the processor i.e. the artist during the making. Performing the printmaking procedure on another day at another time, during a different mood or alertness will most certainly lead to different expression of random marks. This means that an exact reproducibility is almost impossible and hence the finished ‘print’ is unlikely to ever be the same; hence an ‘Edition’ becomes  a series of truly unique work. Further more during the printmaking process the artist is not just the creator but at the same time becomes also the spectator as there is this exciting moment when the image is  revealed for the first time exposing all intended as well as unexpected marks on the paper in the context of the original image.