'Ink Trails' show to open in Gallery 239

 This body of mixed media works on paper is created from the obsessive mark using a wide variety of materials to make and imply lines and forms in addition to drawings, etchings, wood engravings, woodcuts and relief prints made from solar plates.

Brunvand uses lines made from materials such as dog hair, thread, and staples to create physical lines and textures. When viewed from a distance the work appears soft in texture and rendered in traditional media, such as charcoal, yet on closer inspection the materials used are evident. 

This spring she was voted as one of the 15 most influential artists in Utah through a survey conducted by the online arts magazine “15BYTES.”

Her work has shown throughout the United States, and in Canada, England, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Scotland, Palestine, China, Colombia, Bosnia and Hungary.

In her artist’s statement, she said, “The act of the mark making is integral to this work. It is rhythmic in its evolution on the page, creating a momentum I can’t interrupt while it is being drawn. These ink trails are simple and subtle, but as the marks on the paper accumulate, a variety of complex formal compositions emerge.”

Brunvand said, “Density of accumulated ink creates soft variations in texture. The white of the paper seemingly becomes whiter in areas of dense trails. The endless variation mesmerizes me and compels me to continue exploring the possibilities on the page.”

Images in her work relate to natural forms found in and around the hills near Salt Lake City where she lives but are abstracted and layered allowing for multiple interpretations.

“Small plants, so delicate, and yet so strong in their struggle to survive are what I often use to represent my themes. These small humble plants are elevated to the majestic as they are enlarged to become the central focus of my images, yet they retain their simplicity of form,” she said in her artist’s statement.

The tangle of scrub oak branches is reminiscent of human forms, while the abstract lines can perhaps be interpreted as trails in both physical and metaphorical senses. These images, these icons of the trail, represent the wholeness of existence and the nature of the human journey through this life.