In Mythic Nature, I create compositions of an imagined world. I am fascinated by statuary in the private and public space. These monuments have been erected to embody the mythos, ideals, and spiritual aspirations of the community. They are tributes to the sacrifice of local heroes, ancient gods, or religious icons and form the basis of my imagery. I digitally remove the statues from their stark plinths and merge them with an envisioned landscape, ensconced in blankets of flowers from manicured formal gardens that contrast the hand-hewn surfaces of statues with the natural world. I create digital negatives from these composited images, which I use to print in the 19th-century cyanotype process. Drawn to this technique for its tactile quality, I further add my hand into the image by drawing with pastels. The vertical orientation is a nod to the Asian scroll format and accentuates the upward movement of the statues and the flowering plants as they both reach for the light and our ideals.

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About

Sally Chapman is a photographer living in Lowell, MA. After earning a BFA in ceramics and photography from Michigan State University, she worked as a ceramic artist exhibiting widely for over twenty years. When she returned to photography ten years ago, she gravitated towards tactile methods of printing. In her current work, Mythic Nature, she uses the 19th-century photographic process, cyanotype. She has been published in The Hand magazine and has had solo shows at the MIT Rotch Architectural Library, Cambridge, MA; Gallery 93, Brookline, MA; and The Sanctuary in Medford, MA. She won the Excellence in Photography Award at the Rockport Art Association and Museum National Show. She has been included in many group shows, including at the Griffin Museum, Winchester, MA; Image Flow Gallery, Mill Valley, CA; Soho Gallery, New York, NY; Photo Place Gallery, Middlebury, VT; and the Danforth Museum, Framingham, MA. In addition to her BFA in ceramics and photography from Michigan State University, Chapman has studied photography in workshops offered by the New England School of Photography, Griffin Museum, MIT, and Harvard University. She is a member of the Griffin Museum, the Photographic Resource Center, and the Arts League of Lowell.