There are forces that drive the art making practice in all of us. Some things are specific and isolated, while others are more universal. As I began to look through the impressive group of submissions for this exhibition, I tried to find a commonality amongst the wide variety of pieces to create guidelines for myself in the selection process. I chose two words that would inform my process: system and nostalgia.

For my purposes in selecting this work, the idea of system had a very broad definition. In one sense it could mean that a given artist was illustrating a type of system, like the beautifully rendered fences in Elizabeth Ferrill’s Border 10 or the fragmented and incongruous structure of Eli Gfell’s Palace. In other works, it is apparent there is a systematic approach to how the piece was made, either through multiple layers of printing as seen in Mike Sonnichsen’s Untitled (from the 8x8 series (#1) or the collaged woodcut prints in Notations II by Francine Affourtit. It was through pieces like Britni Franklin’s Penthesilia that my second selection word was determined. The combination of old photographs, what look to be scraps of fabric, and pieces of handmade paper make the piece feel nostalgic, but also represent an intersection of system and nostalgia in its layering. More straightforwardly, Lee Turner’s lithograph Wildwood brings us back to summers at the beach as a child, an ultimate gesture of nostalgia.