Brackenwood Gallery - Fine Arts and Crafts from the Pacific Northwest

Artist’s Statement

Briony Morrow-Cribbs creates finely detailed, aquatint etchings; illustrated and hand-bound small-edition books; sculpture; and mixed-media installations. She combines these arts in her current series which includes porcelain sculptural images of creatures and chimera from her imaginative fantasy world, using traditional techniques steeped in history. She then joins them within elaborate displays connecting furniture, glass, and found objects. In addition, Briony invents and writes a systematic taxonomy for her creatures.

In my work I attempt to create an accessible space between the world of science and the abstract, mutable world of my imagination. And in an effort to achieve this, the ‘monstrous form’ – with all its repulsive qualities and latent appeal – has become the focal point of my work.

In an attempt to build a familiar yet disturbing, new reality I employ contemporary modes of scientific and commercial illustration and attempt to adopt a tone of ambivalence to create scenes that are simultaneously tense and appealing. My vocabulary of mark making – built with numerous dots and dashes – alludes to the engravings of 16^th century naturalists. My subjects, who appear as hybrid monsters and chimera, present disturbing juxtapositions, yet retain elements that are familiar.  It is through these new, surreal creations that I aim to create a subversive moment in the viewer’s mind where sensations of disgust meet those of desire. In essence, I am attempting to document the moment where the monstrous and rejected move freely in the space created between the grotesque and the beautiful.

For me personally, the process-oriented medium of etching is the perfect mix of alchemy and modern chemistry and has presented an appropriate way to document these new forms. The qualities of hard ground etching with a needle – and the precise effects one can obtain – have had a large effect in the development of this monstrous concept. At first just an odd compulsion, my obsession with rendering texture through line has matured to become a comment on notions of order and control related to contemporary issues within the world of science. At the same time it comments on how methods of acquiring knowledge can collide with the edge of absurdity. My small marks and the time that they imply also demand a level of trust in the viewer that is denied by the subjects I render. In effect, I am able to create an alternative reality – or maybe a suspended reality. While I record these unfamiliar forms, the process of printmaking also allows me to track the evolution of the piece because I print the plate at each new state.

While my work currently focuses on broader themes of science, I have recently made efforts to refine the focus of my work. Specifically, I’m working on presenting themes that comment on the complex issues around the environment and recent advances in genetics. A more poetic and slightly less concrete ambition is finding a way to capture and illustrate a still and silent slice of narrative while simultaneously revealing the movement and vitality of the moment. I would love to consume the viewer with this moment, make her pause, take it all in, and imagine the continuation of the narrative – before moving on.

Current Status

Briony has settled in nicely to the Madison scene and has begun to understand the intricacies of being a graduate student in a research-based university. Although she often yearns for Vermont, the studio and Helen’s company, she has had an amazing experience at school. The program has given her the chance to focus on her own work and to experiment with working larger and bolder. Simultaneously, she has also taken on the task of working on 50 new illustrations for the upcoming book “Wicked Bugs” by Amy Stewart, the second book in the “Wicked” series. This book will be released in the spring of 2011. Briony has also found a true Wisconsin man, Ted Lott, with whom she has fallen deeply in love.

Although devoting a large amount of her time towards her degree, Briony has also made efforts to show her work in a number of shows across the country. With the publication of “Wicked Plants”, she was invited to show at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden last spring and will have her botanical work showcased at the Bone Room in Berkley this April. In September Briony was invited to participate in a print show in Titan, WA and in January, she participated in “Forward,” a show in Chicago that featured the work of current UW-Madison graduate students. This summer Briony will be showing her more recent work in a family show (Buffy, Bruce and Briony) at the new Brackenwood Gallery in Langley, WA as well as the Froggwell Binnalle at the Froggwell Gardens on Whidbey Island.

Bio Background

In 2009 Briony moved to Madison, WI to an MFA program in graduate school. In 2008 Briony Morrow-Cribbs moved to Brattleboro, Vermont from Whidbey Island, Washington to start Twin Vixen Press, an intaglio-based printmaking studio. In 2005 Briony graduated from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, B.C. with a BFA.