Kristin Sarette
And Around We Go, Lithograph, 20 x 15 in., 2019
“Color, as well as the act of printing, holds deep space in our subconscious.”
Kristin Sarette is an artist living and working in Logan, Utah (USA). Her approach to color is varied and intuitive, and her approach to printmaking is technical and material-based. The blended, layered and deceptively simple prints Kristin makes are created with lithography, blind embossing and dry roll flats. Currently she has a solo exhibition at the Whitney Center for the Arts at Sheridan College (Wyoming) and will then have a solo exhibition at the Plains Art Museum (Fargo, North Dakota).
How does color represent or support the mind space of your work?
My work is wholly based off of color as metaphor. Whether it be the color representing a feeling, or because of it's specific connotations with human attributes, there is a deliberate reason I have chosen to use a specific hue.
For the past few years, my focus has been on the color Yellow and the notion of transition. I chose Yellow for its conflicting associations of illness, cowardice and caution, and brightness, happiness, enlightenment and inherent optimism. These are all attributes I associate with change.
In some works, I have showcased the entire spectrum of the hue's tints and shades, and in other works I have blended it with it's compliment, Violet. The yellow was no longer the star of the show, but an element of the transitional browns between itself and its compliment. I found this to mirror the reality of transition in action.
The unexpected highlights and changes in which we could not account for in the beginning are what shape and form us through the process. These browns also present themselves as a reminder of thick, muddy unclear states we find ourselves in during times of intense introspection and change.
Paradigm Shift, Dry Roll Flat Paper Installation, 10 x 15 feet, 2019
To Practice These Principles In All My Affairs, Multiple Lithograph Installation, 33 x 76 in., 2020
How does the printmaking process itself relate to how you work with color?
I want thick juicy flats of color, I want bold overarching blends that you can't look away from, and I want A LOT of them. Although the character or texture of a matrix like wood can be appealing, in my work I want very little distraction from the color I have chosen to use. This is why I feel lithographically printed flats are the best vehicle to relay this message. Working almost exclusively in lithography has given me an appreciation for not only how colors interact under pressure, but for the ink body itself, and how to manipulate it to react with the previous ink films.
I also exclusively use yellow, blue, red, black, and white in my work. By using primary colors I tap into the inherent nostalgia of these hues, as the act of applying pressure to create a printed abstraction of say, a hand, offers the same nostalgia. Printmaking is inherent to our bodies. Before we could even hold mark making tools as infants, we make prints. Color, as well as the act of printing, holds deep space in our subconscious.
“The unexpected highlights and [color] changes...are what shape and form us through the process. These browns also present themselves as a reminder of thick, muddy unclear states we find ourselves in during times of intense introspection and change.”
Lines Crossed, Lithograph, 74 x 27 in., 2018
If you could eat a color for dinner, what color would you choose and how would it taste?
I've never wanted to lick all 5 sides of an ink knife more than when it is glopped in Thalo Blue Green Shade. I'm thinking Jell-O mold with fish eggs... but so sweet you think you're eating a gelatin ring pop. It that appetizing? I want it to be.
A Peak II, Lithograph, 20 x 15 in., 2019