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Male-Female

“Arid Adaptation Male & Female”

Artist Teresa Villegas “Arid Adaptation, Male, Female” 2011-14 Print size: 66” h x 36”w each Paper: Archival, Arches Cover White 300gms Limited Edition of 7, For Sale $2,000.00 each unframed.

I carved the matrix on 8′ x 4′ particle board, the largest wood carving I’ve ever made. It took me weeks and many bandages on my fingers. I was then fortunate to have the talented and easy to work with Master Printmaker Bernt Bond of Santo Press, Scottsdale, AZ agree to contract the hand printing and complete the edition. I never could have finished the vision of this work without his exhaustive experience and impeccable quality of printmaking skills.

This work has been inspired by two ideas. First, as a technical endeavor to produce a large size relief print, as I have never carved a relief block this large (60″ x 32″). The physical challenge of the size was exciting to me. And the second was to create a body of work, based on a theme I have been thinking about for some time now.

I have been developing a visual mythology of the human body as it relates to our natural environment, and it has appeared in many themes in my printmaking and my painting work. In Arizona, we are surrounded by the beauty of the Sonoran Desert. In “Arid Adaptation; Male Female” desert plants are internal organs of the human body and mirror our relationship with a sense of place. The text identifies the genus species names of the desert plants. The underlying message is for us to become more aware of ourselves in our environments and how we relate to them. The underlying question here is how can we nurture this symbiotic relationship; with love, intelligence, and understanding or with fear, intolerance, and power?