Gail Erwin | Groton Public Library

Groton Public Library

Gail Erwin, Travels in Time

Cyanotype Printed Photographs

February 5 - April 4, 2020

Monastery, Italy
(click to enlarge)

Gail Erwin’s 21st-century digital photographs translate into evocative blueprints creating new, unpredictable images and transforming the original photos. She delights in recognizing patterns and rhythms in nature, landscape, and the built environment and in devising mysterious, layered, and tactile images at their intersection. Time, age, and memory are reflected in image and process. Her extensive traveling has offered a wealth of subject matter to realize her creative vision. Castles in Scotland, Germany, and Ireland, ancient ruins in Peru, and medieval cathedrals in Italy reveal opportunities for inspiration in newly discovered places.

Spiral Stair, Dublin

(click to enlarge)

An artist for over 25 years, she has shown her work in numerous venues regionally and nationally. In 2014, she became a founding member of 6 Bridges Gallery, an artist-run gallery in Maynard, MA. From 1999 to 2014 she was a member of the Kingston Gallery in Boston’s South End. Her studio is at ArtSpace in Maynard.

Teaching experience includes Massachusetts College of Art and Design, DeCordova Museum School, several community centers, and studio classes.

Her broad academic background lists a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art; BA, William Smith College; MS in Education, State University of New York College at Oswego; JD, Western New England College of Law.

Notes on the Process

Cyanotype printing is a non-darkroom alternative photo process in which images are contact printed onto paper or fabric. The surface is coated by hand, exposed to UV light either in the sun or in an exposure unit, developed in water, fixed and rinsed. The process originated in the 1830s and has been used for architectural blueprints. In the last few years, the process has been reclaimed as an art medium. Erwin uses her digital photos to create a digital negative on the computer, and then print it on transparency film.