Ray Bartkus. Exhibition “Prints”
An imprint is like a document of being
Although I have graduated Vilnius Art Institute (in 1990 the name changed into Vilnius Art Academy), the studies of graphic art, my relations with traditional graphic art have broken long time ago. Etchings, lithography and linen carvings require too many specialized skills. These technologies are baroque complicated, as compared to democratic simplicity of digital medias. I think that traditional graphic art technologies unnecessary make it difficult to convey ideas and experiences.
However, an imprint was and still is an object awaking my curiosity. An imprint – as if a document of entity: a mark of touch, a fixer of past stage. I do not create formal compositions, do not look for suggestive color compositions and reflect masterly. I simply print things and people surrounding me on paper, and expect that imprints of these objects, whatever like they would be, will whisper their stories and ideas similarly as a prehistoric fish seal in a limestone, bloody bandage, or stamps in a passport proofing traverse of frontier.
Ray Bartkus
