On Thin Ice
Chris Ruston, UK
The world of ice intrigues with it's amazing array of shape, colour, and texture. Each bookmark contains a set of unique marks reflecting the Polar landscape. They form part of recent work which is a response to climate change, in particular the rapid retreat of the worlds glaciers. "On Thin Ice" is a reminder of this disappearing world.
I work with paper, producing both paintings and artists' books and am interested in the landscape and environment. Using mark making, and a fluid technique of working wet into wet, I create images where the content is suggested rather than defined. Recent preoccupations see me looking closely at how patterns are repeated on both a micro and macro scale.
I see these similar processes at work on the paper when it is saturated with water and ink. The resulting marks echo what occurs in the wider landscape around us.