Arron Foster
After The Fire, screenprint, 11 x 14 inches, 2022
“Color is a significant and irreplaceable piece of sensory data and fundamental to what I do as an artist.”
Arron Foster is an artist living and working in Kent, Ohio (USA). His approach to color is intuitive and rooted in his exploration of place, and his approach to printmaking is interdisciplinary and project driven. Arron's research-based work is investigative and involves observing, studying, and documenting specific locations using print media and installation. He hopes that his work will encourage interest and empathy for the spaces we occupy.
Currently, Arron is researching Appalachian migration to Northeast Ohio, and preparing work for display at the 5th Global Print Exhibition in Douro, Portugal.
How does color represent or support the mind space of your work?
If I were to reduce my goal as an artist to a single objective, it would be to get people to recognize the interplay existing between them and their local environment. I believe that our perceptions of place influence our sense of self, well-being, and belonging. Further, by looking closely at specific places, we can gain insights into the shared identities, histories, politics, and culture of communities. We also gain insights into why some people feel at ease in a place while others feel a sense of alienation. By shining a light on specific places, it is possible to highlight their unique character and create a space for their shared interpretation and understanding.
The identity of places consists of the unique combination of intrinsic characteristics, which makes them distinctive. One of the fundamental aspects of place identity is color. As seen in many of our place names, we are accustomed to associating specific places with particular color palettes, which influences our relationship with them.
The associations we make between color and place are often grounded in geography or land, but they are also often idiosyncratic. One of the many things I try to identify about places in my research is the dominant trends or attitudes that persist about color. In the studio, I think of ways to riff off of these prevailing attitudes about color in my work. As I’ve said before, my goal is to encourage people to notice their spaces or places with an eye toward criticality. Given that color is such a part of our experience of places it is really fundamental to the work I am doing as an artist.
“The associations we make between color and place are often grounded in geography or land, but they are also often idiosyncratic.”
We Should Be Home, installation, multi-media, dimensions variable, 2021.
It’s Always Good Going, double-sided screenprint, 18 x 24 inches, 2022
Another Time (installation view), laser-engraved relief prints, 168 x 192 inches.
Another time has other live to live, archival digital inkjet on awagami inbe, 98 x 72 inches, 2017.
Where do you reside between technical and intuitive in your work as an artist using color?
I like this question because it touches on the role habit and skill play in an artists' practice. I try not to subscribe to the notion that a dichotomy exists between technique and intuition. Instead, I tend to see the two as symbiotic and feel that my past training and experience in technical matters promotes intuitive thinking and working when I am in the moment.
I have been well trained and practiced in the majority of the traditional print processes. I have engaged with historical and critical discourse in my field. And I have had the good fortune to study with and around artists I think of as expert colorists. I believe that one of the purposes of these experiences is to promote creative freedom and fluency. To allow me to react as needed when I am in the moment. When I am actively working in my studio, I am not thinking about technique unless something has gone wrong or there is a question I cannot answer.
When I have set to work on something, be it a print or an installation, I am trying to give physical form to a concept. My objective is to communicate something, and my focus is on making myself clear. My work asks people to see their environment as more than just a backdrop in their lives. In this capacity, I see myself as an amplifier of sorts, which reflects in my formal choices. For me, color is a fundamental tool for developing the affective qualities of my work. The concept of the sublime in art has been influential to me. I am always striving to create a sense of pathos in my work. I intentionally use color in ways that I believe are evocative to provoke emotion. While I want my work to be cerebral, I also want it to be graphic and expressive. Color is a significant and irreplaceable piece of sensory data and fundamental to what I do as an artist.
“I believe that developing a shared understanding of the physical world can encourage empathy for the spaces we occupy and perhaps nurture a greater sense of stewardship and care.”
Lost and Found, screenprint, dimensions variable, 2021.
December, screenprint, 22 x 30 inches, 2019
What are the direct references, research, or aspects of history that your work includes?
My artistic process combines inquiry, trial and error, and research. The relationship between the material experiments in my studio and the concepts that are preoccupying me give the work form.
That said, over the past few years, I have been very interested in theories surrounding our sense of place, which I understand to mean our perception of the distinctive or unique character of particular localities and regions. Sense of place as an innate human faculty can create either positive bonds of comfort or negative feelings of fear and dysphoria depending on the environment. In this context, I am particularly interested in how we engage with place, in that it shapes us in as much as we shape it.
My recent work is representative of my interests in the historical and experiential realities of specific locations. I develop these interests using formal and informal research strategies. Primarily, I rely upon on-site visits, trips to libraries and archives, and conversations with people in the community. Through this research, I hope to better understand, describe, and reflect the physical and social realities of a place.
I hope that the work creates a space for dialogue and the shared exploration and interpretation of places. I believe that developing a shared understanding of the physical world can encourage empathy for the spaces we occupy and perhaps nurture a greater sense of stewardship and care.
But now it’s gone, cyanotype and silkscreen, 28 x 20 inches, 2020.
I do believe it’s time, cyanotype and silkscreen, 28 x 20 inches, 2020.
Cryin nothin there, cyanotype and silkscreen, 28 x 20 inches, 2020.
While the earth remains, screenprint, archival digital output, installation of 10 accordion fold books, 120 x 83 inches, 2020.