Joan Hausrath

	I was trained in copper plate etching, a centuries-old process that uses solvent based products and nitric and hydrocloric acids. Although the studios where I worked were ventilated, I was thrilled when, in the 1990's, printmakers began to investigate processes that were less toxic. Since then the non-toxic printmaking movement has resulted in a number of new processes and materials, some that incorporate digital images. I use a number of these innovations in making my prints. Most of my prints are monoprints, hand printed as unique, one-of-a-kind works of art.
	STONE SERIES
	As evidenced by their appearance in several of my print series, I have had a long-time attraction to the shapes, colors and patterns of rocks and stones in their various forms. Conceptually, their geological features remind me of the age of our planet and how the present day is just a minute speck of time within the BIG picture of the universe. With the Stone Series, I practiced my skills as a paper stone mason. I printed intaglio (etching) and lithography plates with stone images on rice paper. I then cut out the images and adhered them to the print paper as if I were "building" architectural and naturall structures. With some of the prints, I embossed the paper for additional definition. Each is a unique print, a monoprint.
	STICKS AND STONES
	My attraction to natrural textures and patterns inspired this series of intimate landscape monoprints. In each image I was concerned with acheiving a balance and harmony between the compact weightiness of the stones and the linear fragility of the sticks. My process incorporated a layering of images from a collagraphic plate, collaged monotype shapes, and lithography.
	ARCHAEOLOGY SERIES
	My prints are inspired by the material culture of long buried civilizations. The images are a conceptual depiction of pictographs and recovered artifacts rendered with an earthiness that reflects their centuries-long entombment in the ground. I am intrigued by the mysteries that surround these marks and relics and how present day research of their remains can only hint at the cultural complexities of the societies that produced them. The prints in the Archaeologiy Series are collagraphs. The plates are either cardboard or plastic and the images are built up with acrylic mediums, fabrics, and thin pieces of cardboard.
	TRAVEL JOURNAL
	I love to travel. Rather than keeping a written journal, I record my experiences in the form of maps using marks and symbols to note where I've been, what I have observed, and people I've met each day. I have used these drawings in a series of prints made by placing paper over ink that I have rolled out on a surface and by drawing on the back of the paper, thus transferring the ink to the paper. Sometimes I layer images on top of images in the same way my memory of the trip runs the days together.