"Hundertwasser 4" by Margaret Rankin

It has been way too long since I wrote about a print by the talented Margaret Rankin. (Last time was in 2010.) This image has been used with the artist's permission. Information about her and links to her online store, blog, Flickr, and Facebook pages can be found here.

I was especially drawn to this image because of my recent interest in ammonites, specifically ammonite fossil fields such as the one pictured below.

Photographs such as the one below feel like images of a mass burial, unearthed. Each fossilized shell is a spiral into infinity, unseen. Immortal, yet extinct; it is an eerie juxtaposition. In a small, strange way, I feel as if sacred ground has been desecrated, some secret, dark knowledge, revealed.

But in Rankin's print, I feel warmth and life. The spirals there tumble and roll, rise and sink, expand and contract. Though they are compartmentalized into rows, some break free, while others dig tunnels, build ladders, or otherwise expand their small place in the world. All seem to move and breath.

The title of her piece is after the Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser, known for his colorful paintings. As you can see from the example below, Haus im Wind (I), he also had an interest in spirals and bringing inanimate subjects alive with color and movement.

"Seated Woman" by Margaret Rankin

Image reposted with permission of the artist. Read and view more work at Margaret Rankin's blog here, and purchase prints at her store here.

This is the sort of image that grabs me on a visceral level. The woman's defeated gesture is so evident. Her body embedded in wood, pulled down by gravity and streaks of grain. I wonder if it is the weight of some terrible news or experience that brings her down, or is it simply that she is exhausted by a hard day, hard year, or hard life. Either way, the feeling evoked is something universal.

Even without the title the figure seems feminine, with her sloping shoulders and soft curves. But her body is thick and heavy. The woodgrain gives texture, yet her actual skin seems smooth - she strikes me as physically strong. Perhaps this assumption is reinforced by the connection with trees. Wood is sturdy, firm, and strongest when part of a living being. Defeated for the moment, this women is still green with life.