D O R O T H Y S I M P S O N K R A U S E J u d i R o t e n b e r g G a l l e r y , L L C . B o s t o n , M A

v i e w p o i n t

Viewpoint

Abigail Ross Goodman, Director and Curator

Judi Rotenberg Gallery

One of the first things I noticed when I descended into Dorothy Simpson Krause’s studio this summer

was the return of nature to her work. There were skeletons of trees, arteries of briars, gold-leafed terrain

that read like flesh, and radiant or occluded atmospheres. These references of human vulnerabilities

– body and soul – are an interesting counterpoint to this body of work which is about the condition of

nature today.

In 20 digital collages and an accompanying handmade book, Krause takes the environment around her

home in Marshfield, Massachusetts as the jumping off point for a visual conversation about the impact

of humans on the land.

The traditional landscape is the entry point to the artist’s complex technique of layering of abstract

and representational images (and

meaning) onto materials like alu-

minum, poly-carbonate, wax, gold

and silver leaf. Following the artist’s

method, the pieces require the

viewer to peel back each visual

layer and then let them flip for-

ward to reconstitute a whole. It

is in this act of deconstructing

and reconstructing that the viewer

locates herself in the field of the

images. The result is a sense of

emotional presence and absence

more than of location specifically.

Further dualities abound in the

Abigail Ross in the studio viewing Gate to the Dunes

Viewpoint, Inkjet printed concertina book, cover of handwoven fabric, 6” x 4.5” closed, 6” x 36” open

work – empty and built spaces, the uplifting and the foreboding, warmth and coolness. Krause unearths

the beauty but recognizes the vulnerable in the landscape. She has a mournful awareness of humans’

impact on nature and explains the work as an “elegy, a lament for a vanishing landscape.” They also

reveal her most intimate perspective.

The name of the show, “Viewpoints,” is also the name of the home and studio where the artist has

worked for the past 26 years. Krause’s particular horizon, as it alters from season to season, year to

year, also clearly provides the inspiration for these mixed media pieces. Using her home as the starting

point, Krause has heightened and personalized the intensity of her observations. It is not just the envi-

ronment she is concerned about, but her unique universe, the axis around which her life turns.

It is intriguing to note that the only other time Krause specifically chronicled the land, was in a body of

work from 2003 titled “Sacred Spaces”. Krause stated then that “these sacred spaces are not religious

shrines or destinations for pilgrims,” as had been subjects in early works, “but are the nearby places

that still the mind, nourish the soul and provide a refuge for reflection and contemplation.” Here too the

artist looked outward to nature as the catalyst for looking inward. Krause has so often used her work

as a platform for raising issues about culture, gender, politics and place, but only twice in larger works

for addressing her own climate. In both instances, she turned away from architecture and cities, from

people and relics towards the land.

Here, her confluence of terra firma and the self are re-engaged. In this way it seems that these works

reveal as much about the artist’s personal sensitivities, as they do about our planet.

BeachgressUV cured flatbed print on polycarbonate over silver leaf

32” x 32”

Gate to the DunesUV cured flatbed print on polycarbonate over silver leaf

32” x 48”

Light in the Tall TreesUV cured flatbed print on brushed aluminum dibond

48” x 32”

Small StreamInkjet print on silver leaf

24” x 24”

IceStormUV cured flatbed print on polycarbonate over silver leaf

triptych 48” x 48”

SnowpathUV cured flatbed print on polycarbonate over wood

48” x 32”

TreesInkjet print on aluminum

24” x 24”

BriarsInkjet print on steel

24” x 24”

The Shed Out BackUV cured flatbed print on polycarbonate over inkjet print

36” x 30”

BranchesUV cured flatbed print on polycarbonate over encaustic print and silver leaf

32” x 32” x 2”

Spot for ContemplationUV cured flatbed print on polycarbonate over white paint

32” x 48”

Through the RainUV cured flatbed print on brushed aluminum dibond

32” x 48”

TreelineUV cured flatbed print on polycarbonate over silver leaf

32” x 48”

FenceUV cured flatbed print on polycarbonate over silver leaf

32” x 32”

Shack in the DunesUV cured flatbed print on polycarbonate over silver leaf

32” x 32”

House on StiltsUV cured flatbed print on polycarbonate over oil on canvas painting and silver leaf

32” x 32” x 2”

SnowfenceUV cured flatbed print on polycarbonate over silver leaf

32” x 48”

WagonUV cured flatbed print on polycarbonate over gold wash

32” x 32”

HorizonlineInkjet print on aluminum

diptych 24” x 48”

Storm SkyUV cured flatbed print on brushed aluminum dibond

32” x 48”

Long Road to SunsetUV cured flatbed print on polycarbonate over metallic paint

48” x 32”

Artist StatementDorothy Simpson Krause

For a quarter century my home and studio, “Viewpoint”,

has been on a small island south of Boston. With the

historic North River on one side, the South River on the

other and Massachusetts Bay ahead, the island is con-

nected to the mainland by a short causeway. The village

of Marshfield Hills, as the name suggests, is a landscape of

marshes, fields and hills. Founded in 1640 as a part of the original

Plymouth Colony, the town is rich in history and natural beauty.

The woods, meadows, fields, marshes, beaches, riverbanks, ponds and sky provide an ever changing

panorama of nature. Each vista has unique characteristics that change with the seasons, weather and

light. Within this small geographic area I am provided with an almost infinite variety of possibilities.

This exhibition, also called Viewpoint, was chosen to reference both my physical vantage point and

the way in which I see my world. It is an elegy, a lament for a vanishing landscape. The distant power

lines, fences, footprints and empty benches serve as metaphors for the intrusion of man in nature.

As I worked on the large format Viewpoint series, I also made a small concertina bound book. Focusing

on the environment and our impact upon it, this small, enclosed, intimate book format allows me to

research projects, ask questions and explore my responses.

Crossing the boundaries between large-scale mixed media pieces and artist books, my work is an

integrated mode of inquiry that links concept and media in an ongoing dialogue - a visible exploration

of meaning.

The ProcessDorothy Simpson Krause

A painter by training and a collage maker by nature, I combine traditional and digital media to produce

work that respects the past and alludes to the future. Although produced with the most current high

technology equipment, the work is grounded in both time and place.

The materials and processes I choose for my work are as varied as my concepts. In other work I have

used recycled copper, plaster, tar and encaustic. In this series, in an attempt to capture the quality of

light and shadow, I have used transparent and reflective materials – polycarbonate, aluminum, steel,

metallic pigments and silver leaf. As the viewer moves, the color shifts and shadows are cast. The

images are soft and diffused as seen through a memory.

The work in the Viewpoint series combines photographs and paintings. They were printed using both

inkjet and uv cured flatbed printers. The inkjet prints are on aluminum and steel. The uv cured prints

are printed onto 3/8” clear polycarbonate affixed to plywood which has been left natural, painted with

white or metallic paint or covered with silver leaf. The image is carried around the edges of most pieces

with paint. The process is most simply described as “mixed media” or “digital collage”.

Incorporating variations on the Viewpoint images, the book Viewpoint is a 6” x 4.5” concertina. It has

an inkjet printed landscape extending over eight folded pages to a length of 6” x 36” with a pastel,

alcohol, colored pencil wash on the back. The cover is a fragment of handwoven fabric over bookcloth

covered bookboard with an inkjet printed title.

applying silver leafprinting on the Epson iinkjet printer

the studio

painting on inkAID precoatwork hanging in the sudio

screwing on the polycarbonate

printing on the HP flatbed printerpainting around the edgesimage in Photoshop layers