“Wildfires” … that’s a scary word where I live, and I’m guessing that’s the same for California based artist Clare Szydlowski. These dramatic silkscreens are printed by hand using the CMYK process printing method… so many colorful layers that need to be aligned perfectly!? The imagery is digital collage of photos Clare took of new suburban developments merged with images of historical / current forest fires and dust storms. What isn’t digital though is her very hands-on technique:

“When I first started this body of work while an AIR at Kala Art Institute, I found a lot of people thought my prints were digital. My answer to this was to work with bigger dots to expose the little variations seen in hand pulled prints. I grew to LOVE these juicy rosettes and little imperfections… traces of human touch.”

Sigh. I love those juicy rosettes too.