on crossing
collaboration with jessica mills
woodcut, trace monotype, drawing and collage on kozo paper, 2008/09
On Crossing is a collaborative work on paper created by two artists who use ritualistic mark making and the exploration of space with fervour in their own studio practices. It was during their graduate program of study at the University of Georgia that Jodi Green and Jessica Ann Mills first met. While both working towards their Master's degree, Jodi and Jessica formed a very close professional friendship and spent the last three years working in very close quarters. It was their own compassions for their homes that led to many intriguing conversations. Upon graduation both artists find themselves back home; now close to the home they felt away from, but missing the studio companionship that graduate school so beautifully provided. In her own work, Jessica uses small hatched line-work to investigate the poetic beauty of the degradation of Mid-American agricultural architecture and equipment. She obsessively searches for the abandoned by way of the open road. While in the United States, Jodi had been temporarily displaced from her home. During this period of placelessness, Jodi became intrigued by the one road that led her home and the line [the border] that divided that line.
On Crossing is an exploration in keeping with the dialogue that was so accessible to both artists for the last three years, but now is separated by hundreds of mile of highway and a definitive border. The end result of this collaboration will be a print that has crossed the United States/Canadian border 19 times and will bear the evidence of its travels through the postal markings directly on the image. Each artist will be responsible for 10 layers of the total 20 layers of information. The project will be documented by each artist on receipt of the work and on return of the work. The final printed image will reflect the conditions of communication across miles, the ebb and flow of a visual dialogue between two image makers and the beauty and innovation that can surface from ritual.
On Crossing was first exhibited at Graphica Creativa '09 at the Jyväskylä Centre for Printmaking in Jyväskylä, Finland. Participation in Graphica Creativa '09 was made possible through an exhibition assistance grant from the Ontario Arts Council.
