Elizabeth Busey likes to exploit the deliberate nature of printmaking and collage to meditate on parts of the world that fascinate her. Daily encounters with towering billows of clouds as well as expansive topographies and microscopic illuminations are translated into detailed, rhythmic monoprint collages, and large, colorful reduction linocuts.
Elizabeth Busey’s artwork is included in public, corporate, hospital and private collections in the United States, Europe and Australia. Her work has been featured in juried printmaking shows such as the Boston Printmaker’s North American Biennial, the Los Angeles Printmaking Society National Print Exhibition, and the Four Rivers Print Biennial. Her monoprint collage, Nevertheless She Was Sanguine, was awarded First Place in the Indiana Artists juried show at Newfields/Indianapolis Museum of Art.
Busey was born in Syracuse, New York in 1967 to parents who loved to hike and travel. She continued this interest as she lived on both coasts, and now resides among the rugged hills and valleys of Bloomington, Indiana.
Statement
I assemble vintage maps, cyanotypes, screen prints, and monotypes into large collages on paper. My collages hang in healthcare, civic, and corporate buildings as well as private homes. I choose natural and humanmade patterns for the calm I experience when mindfully focusing on their arrangement.
I create my collage materials to share a harmony in hue and tone. I screen print simplified, enlarged topographical maps and natural patterns. I alter cyanotypes and vintage maps with monotypes. There is a duality in the work: I crop individual collage elements large enough to recognize and contemplate when up close, while creating a collage that becomes its own pattern at a distance. I invite the viewer to focus on unexpected beauty, and for a moment put aside suffering.