Debra Salopek
black iceberg series, 2022
Woodcut with graphite and charcoal, Paper size: 17" x 21"
The ‘black iceberg series’, a set of five woodcut prints, was developed during my artist residency at Tusen Takk Foundation in northern Michigan during the winter of 2022. The focus of the project was the ice formation along the shores of the Great Lakes region and the icebergs that often result from this winter pattern. Influenced by the stone block prints and etchings by native Inuit artists of their Arctic environment, I created a series of mirrored forms to represent lake icebergs, which I then carved onto wood blocks and hand-printed on Japanese paper. The decision to print the iceberg forms black, while made primarily for aesthetic reasons, also serves to suggest a ‘cancellation’, or disappearance, of our planet’s glaciers and shrinking ice sheets due to global warming. Measured in area and duration, ice formation on all five Great Lakes has been diminishing since the early 1970s. While there is variability of ice coverage year to year, the long-term trend for lake ice is one of decline due to global climate change. Total Great Lakes ice coverage in 2023, at only 6.5%, has been the lowest in recorded history.
ARTIST BIO
Born in California, raised in Mexico, Debra Salopek grew up bilingual, straddling 2 cultures. She received her BFA from the University of New Mexico in printmaking and drawing, has traveled and lived abroad for several years and makes the American Southwest her primary home. Debra worked as a fine art printmaker in Los Angeles, CA collaborating with artists such as Alex Katz, Robert Mangold, Silvia Plimack Mangold, Robert Therrien and others, before dedicating full time to her studio with a focus on painting and work on paper. She has exhibited nationally with work in corporate collections and museums; she is currently represented by the William Havu Gallery in Denver, CO, and the Kiechel Fine Art Gallery, in Lincoln, NE.
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