The visual activity occurs just below the surface of the page and just above the pattern, like a tiny, subtle dance of mutating dots on a limitless field. Katjanelson’s grid prints multiplied exponentially. She experimented again and again, making slight changes in the color of the ground, the quality of the marks, and the proportions of the schema, creating hundreds of variations. The artist wrote about her visceral reaction to making her grid lithographs:

The tension set up between each dot in symmetrical arrangements is magnetic, compelling my eyes to fix upon one cluster of dots or another. It was difficult to pull my eyes away after being rooted in an area for an hour or so. As each image became more densely populated by addition of opposing grid systems, disintegration set in. The equilibrium was upset and a chaos was the ultimate end.

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Tick of the Death
Water Beetle

Aquatint etching, 1975

15 5/8 x 15 3/4 inches

Signed: Katjanelson

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