Marilee Salvator
Growth #11, monotype, screenprint, 30 x 22, 2019
“I live for the moment at the press when I peel the work back from the matrix and the interactions between the layers are revealed. It’s always a bit of a surprise what will happen.”
Marilee Salvator is an artist living and working in Bowling Green, Kentucky (USA). Her approach to color is intuitive and her approach to printmaking experimental. Marilee’s highly layered, abstract and biology-inspired work is created with a mix of printmaking process including etching, relief, screen-print and monotype. Currently she is juggling a few different projects including a large-scale, modular print installation and several more modest sized traditional pieces that incorporate collaged prints.
Are there specific associations towards color in your work?
I am a little scared of using a lot of color. I associate colors with sounds, very bright colors feel super loud. It’s like they are screaming; loud noise makes me uncomfortable.
As a graduate student, I started to use more color, but it was always super subtle. I lived in New Mexico at the time and fell in love with the slight shifts of color in the landscape. I would get great joy out of spending time in nature and seeing hundreds of different shades of greens, browns and reds that existed in that environment. Others could look at the same surroundings and only see brown, but I could always find and appreciate the subtleties.
Now I live in Kentucky and I miss the Southwest landscape terribly. But I still find beauty in my current geography. I garden a lot and draw inspiration from the colors in various plants and flowers I grow. I still find more subtle shifts in color to feel the safest to use, but I push myself to branch out beyond this.
Composition #C3, shaped etching plates, wood lithography, 22 x 30, 2015
“Another game I play in the studio is to make myself print a color I have negative associations with. Then I am forced to figure out how to make the print work through additional layers. It’s a game of push and pull, a game of struggle and acceptance of color.”
Untitled, monotype, screenprint, archival pigment print, 30 x22, 2020
“I chose the colors I will use based on what feels right to me intuitively as well as thinking formally about what would work with the colors that have already been printed.”
How does the printmaking process itself relate to how you work with color?
Most of the work I create ends up being a monoprint. I use several different shaped etching plates or screen-prints and layers of monotype to create each piece. At the start of a print session, I will pull out between 10-15 sheets of paper, most will be prints in progress, having varying degrees of completeness. Then I will mix between 5-7 different inks to use in that print session.
I chose the colors I will use based on what feels right to me intuitively as well as thinking formally about what would work with the colors that have already been printed. Does a particular piece need something to really make it pop? Does a specific area need to be pushed back in space? Is there a certain color I am just really into at the moment?
Sometimes I start with a base color and play around mixing other colors in and watch the hue develop purely based on instinct. I normally add a little of each color to the others to make them more harmonious with each other. Often, each consecutive layer I print will include a new color. I use a large amount of transparency in my ink, creating color veils.
As most printmakers, I live for the moment at the press when I peel the work back from the matrix and the interactions between the layers are revealed. It’s always a bit of a surprise what will happen. Sometimes it’s a wonderful interplay between colors and forms, other times I need to keep working to make it work. My pieces often have between 10-30 layers. Sometimes when I have gone too far, I print a sheet of transparent white over everything to push it back in space and continue the process.
Where do you reside between technical and intuitive in your work as an artist using color?
I fall on the intuitive side, no doubt. I really prefer to follow my gut on all aspects of art making. When I spend too much time in my head hashing out ideas my work tends to get stagnate.
When I am feeling a little stuck, I go into the printshop and take the left-over scrap inks that students leave behind. Sometimes I adjust these colors if they don’t feel quite right or if they are too bright or what have you. Often, I add them to transparency and play with how transparent I can make them and have them still show up. I print these colors and I am forced to respond to them with preceding layers. I like setting myself up for such challenges. It forces me to step outside of my comfort zone and allows me to respond in new and exciting ways.
Another game I play in the studio is to make myself print a color I have negative associations with. Often this will be something bright in intensity. Then I am forced to figure out how to make the print work through additional layers. It’s a game of push and pull, a game of struggle and acceptance of color.
Invade, etching, relief etching, collagraph, chine colle 24 x 18, 2020