TRANSPARENCY & OPACITY: WORK BY ARTIST STEPHEN BLACK ON DISPLAY AT LORIMIER GALLERY

Life at Plimoth Plantation

Illumination

Stranded at Plimoth Plantation 1626

Stephen Black sees the world in terms of layers. That's one reason he is a printmaker, because of the transparency and opacity involved.

"I see a connection with the idea of personal relationships," he says, "how people's personalities have different layers.

"When you talk to people you can see through their different layers. When I make prints I'm thinking figuratively or symbolically."

Work by the Vincennes, Ind., art professor is on display through October at the Lorimier Gallery, 119 Independence St. in Cape Girardeau.

Black grew up in Carbondale, Ill. He received an MFA in printmaking from the University of Iowa and has had exhibits at the A.C.T. Gallery in Detroit and at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville, Ga.

He came to the attention of the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri simply by walking in the gallery while visiting his sister and brother-in-law, Angeline and Frank Brown of Cape Girardeau. One of his works was chosen for the juried Girardot National Drawing Exhibition mounted by the Arts Council in June.

Black loves drawing and says there is a strong connection between drawing and printmaking. He was drawn to printmaking because it incorporates so many different art skills.

He also enjoys the element of surprise involved. "First it will turn backwards, into a mirror image," he says. "And then there's something that happens with the reflection of light."

This show is an exhibit of Black's monotypes, a kind of print made by transferring an inked image from a flat printing plate onto another surface. With monotypes, the artist is painting and drawing on the plate and transferring the image onto paper.

Because there are no engraved lines or textures, each monotype is unique. Some have a luminescence. "Some people liken them to the jewel-like quality of watercolor in some cases," Black says.

Monotypes also can be created that look like oil paintings.

He does not limit himself to printmaking. He loves to draw, especially figure drawing. He teaches a figure drawing class at Vincennes University.

Even though the work on display at the Lorimier Gallery consists of still lifes, Black again finds connections with other forms.

"I regard a lot of the elements in still lifes as having a figurative significance," he says. "They take on a personality much like a figure has."

As a hobby, Black collects toys, especially puppets and dolls from the '20s, '30s and '40s. "I regard them as a kind of art work," said the artist, who sometimes incorporates the art of toymaking into his prints.

"I love the work and play of making art," he said.

The Arts Council of Southeast Missouri's Gallery 100 will show the work of Vermont artist and storyteller Gary Bowen. On display will be Bowen's woodcut prints from his children's book "Stranded at Plimoth Plantation 1626."

The book is a fictional diary of a young Plimoth settler named Christopher Sears. It was the winner of the 1995 IRA Children's Informational Book Award.