Though she’s made her artistic mark primarily as a printmaker, Anne Beresford draws plenty of inspiration from writers and text.
“In paintings and prints with words, there is a conflict between reading and seeing,” she says. “The heart of my work lies in this space of conflict, between the poetic and the political.”
Beresford, of Leverett, says that in college she developed a particular love for acting, painting and printmaking.
“Printmaking appealed to me for several reasons, not the least of which is the intellectual challenge of its many wildly different techniques,” she says. “Also, a curious side note, printmakers need to be able to think, or at least visualize, in reverse. Which is fun.”
Steve Pfarrer: Talk about the work you’re currently doing. What does it involve, and what are you trying to achieve?
Anne Beresford: One current project is an ongoing series of pieces, mostly prints, engaging with political and global issues. This is pretty cerebral work — lots of heavy lifting.
Another project is in direct reaction to the strife of our political sphere, a series of quiet prints and drawings that I am working on as a self-conscious, contemplative respite from the aforementioned heavy lifting.
My third project is more improvisational, visually joyous: a counterpunch to the heaviness. I am trying to beat down the darkness with color and/or gestural freedom. However, the worlds of my work collide, and humor can invade the darker political pieces, and sometimes sadness casts a shadow on the joy.
S.P.: Have you ever had a “mistake” — a project that seemed to be going south – turn into a wonderful discovery instead?
A.B.: Nearly every project leaves me dissatisfied, seeing what could be improved upon, and that leads me to a new idea. The connections between projects are not always obvious, even to me. I tend to jump around, leaping from cliff to cliff, rather than steadily climbing toward a single goal. However (to extend the metaphor), it’s always the same mountain.
S.P.: Name two artists you admire or who have influenced your work. What about their art appeals to you?
A.B.: I am perhaps overly influenced by the works of Rembrandt, and the words and works of Shakespeare. Their works are at the same time so poetic and so prosaic: they describe and underscore the beauty in the commonplace. As a result, when I think of the 17th century, I think of it looking like a Rembrandt — and who’s to say it didn’t?
S.P.: If you weren’t an artist, what do you think you’d be?
A.B.: A physicist. I would love to study and discover more about how it all works.
S.P.: Dream dinner party — who would you invite?
A.B.: As long as it’s a dream, I would include people no longer alive, like in the scene from the play “Top Girls” by Caryl Churchill. I envision a smallish dinner, with lots of candles, lots of flowers: George Eliot, Marie Curie, Charles Dickens, Mary Cassatt, Jane Austen, the Empress Wu, Shakespeare and my great-great-great grandmother.
Another fabulous dinner, this time with the living, might include Roz Chast, Patricia J. Williams (lawyer, journalist), Mary Zimmerman (theater director), Laurie Anderson, Meryl Streep, Midori Goto, Elena Ferrante, Arundhati Roy and Michelle Obama.
Prints by Anne Beresford are part of a group exhibit, on display through July at Forbes Library, by artists who work at Zea Mays Printmaking in Florence. Beresford’s work is also part of a group exhibit at The International Print Center New York (www.ipcny.org) through Sept. 16.