Denise Karabinus
Tear Mandala – green anemone I, 2017, wood block print and watercolor on recycled newsprint, 31 x 31 inches.
“The magic happens when I introduce subtle contrasts to create tiny pops of bright color within the overall design.”
Denise Karabinus is an artist living and working in Honolulu, Hawai’I (USA). Her approach to color is harmonized and her approach to printmaking is sculptural. Denise’s organic, transformed and layered prints are created with intaglio, woodblock, chine collé and drawing processes. She also works with community projects and as a food stylist.
Denise is currently creating prints for a sculptural artist book based on theme of home, completing a (pandemic-delayed) print collaboration project with scientists from the Bishop Museum, and designing an innovative course teaching Sustainable Art and Design based on the UN Sustainability Goals. She is the Executive Director of the Honolulu Printmakers.
Where do you reside between technical and intuitive in your work as an artist using color?
When I am printing a woodblock to create a repeat pattern for a harmonized mandala this work is totally intuitive. The color concept appears to me while driving, sleeping or journaling and then I work it out on the glass slab mixing many colors.
I roll up the wood block with a dark blue and then add white, green or yellow and transparent base to change the color slowly through many runs through the press. I need about 500 prints to create one mandala. The magic happens when I introduce subtle contrasts to create tiny pops of bright color within the overall design.
Are there specific associations towards color in your work?
I am inspired by subtle colors shifts that exist in nature specifically natural dyes like indigo, the ocean, seaweed or a tiny opihi shell.
Tear Mandala – Ocean’s Sway, 2017, wood block print and watercolor on recycled newsprint, 46.5 x 46.5 inches.
Tear Mandala – apricot, 2016, wood block print and watercolor on recycled newsprint, 31 x 31 inches.
Tear Mandala – Ocean’s Sway, 2017, wood block print and watercolor on recycled newsprint, 46.5 x 46.5 inches.
“The repetition that exists in nearly all printmaking processes is meditative for me. The laborious process gives me a lot of time to think.”
How does the printmaking process itself relate to how you work with color?
The repetition that exists in nearly all printmaking processes is meditative for me. The laborious process gives me a lot of time to think. Color stories develop in my mind's eye. I create a lot of tear shaped patterns on a wood block, print them in different colors and then watercolor more subtle modulations onto my printed paper. The color harmony that results is a natural extension of this deep mental work.
What can printmaking ink achieve regarding color in your work that no other material can?
My woodblock printing mentor Laura Smith, an accomplished artist here in Honolulu, taught me to use a lot of transparent base when printing woodblocks. I can create vibrancy in my colors by allowing the color and textures of my up-cycled papers to shine through the transparent ink.
I feel the intense pressure of the press and the combination of high quality oil base printing inks and trans base is the only way I can achieve these special color combinations.
Tear Mandala – Opihi, 2017, wood block print and watercolor on handmade papers, 17.25 x 17.25 inches.