Rachel Gross is an artist and printmaker living in White River Junction, Vermont. She grew up in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania and then attended Oberlin College where she majored in Religion and Studio Art. After living in Seattle for several years Rachel received an MFA in printmaking from Tyler School of Art. Rachel taught printmaking, drawing, and design at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia. She is currently a faculty member of the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction where she teaches drawing. Rachel is an Artist Member and on the Board of Directors at Two Rivers Printmaking Studio in White River Junction. Rachel recently received an Artist Development Grant from the Vermont Arts Council. She lives with her husband, cartoonist James Sturm, and their two young daughters.
I have always been interested in the narrative possibility of pictures. I use images of furniture, interiors, and figures in fictitious landscapes, to create spaces to enter. In my most recent work I have included figures grouped in formations such as pyramids and bridges. Arms, legs, and bent backs become structural elements. By etching these drawings into plates, I can repeat images and motifs and combine them in different ways.
In addition to works on paper, I make trace monotypes and drawings on wood panels. Before making the drawings on the panels, I make a smooth surface using joint compound and paint, then I trace magazine photographs onto the surface using a transfer paper made of powdered pigment. Afterwards I draw directly on the panels with graphite or scratch into the surfaces with etching needles.
Time is an important part of the process, literally and figuratively. When I make etchings, the process of scratching, scraping, sanding is embedded in the plates and then made visible in the print. In a similar way the process of creating my images is revealed in the panel pieces. The mark from the transfer drawing is the residue from the action of tracing. The ghost-like settings are reminiscent of plans or blueprints, implying a fleshed-out future, while at the same time imbued with a sentimental nostalgia for the past.
