20/20 Vision, Second Edition

The Art of Contemporary University Printmaking

Eric COGu Robinson

Visual art, for me, is a potent mode of inquiry and communicative expression. The process of art making slows my thinking to a critical, methodical, and meditative pace that yields discoveries and depth of insight that the service-on-demand, industrial, and technological paces and purposes of other disciplines do not afford me. Printmaking, specifically, is conducive to probing a subject’s manifold nature through edition varia. To develop an edition varia suite, I cycle through contemplation, production, and reflection. Contemplation always has subject(s) and often has an object(s). Production involves representation and abstraction of those subject(s) and object(s) and expression of my beliefs, attitudes, and open inquiry about the same. Reflection is a metacognitive form of contemplation that takes the objects of production (the artworks) as subjects in addition to and in juxtaposition against the primary subjects and objects of the initial contemplation. Strong reflection leads back to direct contemplation of the primary subject(s). So I cycle, round and round, until I have a body of unique artworks that (1) exhausts my capacity to gain any further understanding without an utterly different compositional departure and (2) offers beholders rich representation of the subject and expression of my engagement with it.

Addressing subjects that belong to universal human experience through visual art is also a matchless way to dialogue with the world around me, the spirit within me, and the living God who is above, before, and in all (whose artwork is the world—visible and invisible). One subject that is fundamental to virtually all my work is the disparities between perceptions, understandings (and misunderstandings), and beliefs. I address this subject through other subjects that are simultaneously specific and broad. For instance, I have engaged with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, which is specific in its singular occurrence and broad in its relevance to myriad other subjects including justice, love, wrath, faith, world religions, history, literature, psychology, medical science, and very many more. Producing an edition varia about the crucifixion has allowed me to explore many conceptual, spiritual, and affective viewpoints and associations; for, though Jesus is one, there are at least as many ways of regarding him as there are those who regard. This is true of every subject, and I could have picked any, but the universal human relevance of death coupled with the charged ubiquity among beliefs about Jesus, and my vested faith in his resurrection combines synergistically for me and, I hope, for many diverse beholders.