Markmaking | brittanygorelick

This body of work explores the lived experience of being Queer and Neurodivergent in a world built to accommodate neither experience. Through collage, papermaking, and traditional and experimental printmaking techniques, I use a set of predefined symbols to reject sanitized depictions of mental health and oppressive social structures.

the scribble symbolizes inner chaos

the grid reflects societal rigidity and neurotypical expectations

the waveform, drawn from an echocardiogram during a panic attack, disrupts order

Using fluorescent colors and plotter-cut marks, this body of work is both resistance and reflection. It is a disruption of an imposed definition of normalcy, and a reclamation of space through visual intensity and emotional authenticity.

Monoprint 15"x22"

Brain Flossing Serigraphy 11"x15"

Monoprint 15"x22"

Visualizer Serigraphy & Hand Embellishing 22"x30"

Deboss Dayglo Grid Debossed Plotter Cut Monoprint Collage 11”x15”

Serigraphy & Monoprint 22"x30"

Too Much / Not Enough Plotter Cut Monoprint Collage 11”x15”

Variables series I-IV Polyptych of Plotter Cut Monoprint Collage Variable Dimensions

How It’s Done Plotter Cut Monoprint 10”x18”

Serigraphy & Monoprint 22"x30"

Scheduling Conflicts Plotter Cut Monoprint Collage 11”x15”

Inattentive

Plotter Cut Screen Print with Collage Elements 11”x15”

close up of plotter cut and collage elements

Self Imposition Screenprint comprised of 1 layer burned from a drypoint matrix and two layers burned from scanned risographs 11"x15"

Systems X Plotter Cut Monoprint Collage 11”x15”

Pathology Screenprint comprised of 1 layer burned from a drypoint matrix and two layers burned from scanned risographs 11"x15"

C₁₀H₁₂N₂O Plotter cut screenprint 8.5x11.5

Tufted rug

Systems III Collagraph & Relief 10"x22"

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Through traditional printmaking and alternative paper-making and photographic processes, I use abstraction to explore the unseen symptoms and address the longevity of mental health.

The main focal point of each piece is a sporadic, uncontrollable mark, a visual reference to the feelings of anxiety or emotional dysregulation I experience.

Then the mark interacts with a grid in a variety of ways. The mark can be placed on a grid, or through creating paper string grids, the mark can become the physical manifestation of the grid itself. The grid is a symbol for the self regulatory tools I use on a daily basis such as planners or mindfulness. The marks themselves are unique, referencing how each moment of anxiety is its own. The vastness of time is implied when small marks are placed on a larger piece of paper. A person’s mental health journey is something that they embark on for an unforeseen amount of time. Sometimes a matter of months, sometimes their entire lives. Each mark is the representation of your mental health being something to navigate in the past, present, and future.

However the printed version of the mark is not the original point of anxiety. These reproductions of the original matrix through printed or photographic processes become the memory of the mark. You can never truly replicate or relive the feeling of an experience. This memory can be reexamined and remembered but never relived.

When the marks are small on a large grid form, from far away they lose their individual visual quality. It is only by getting close to the work and examining it do you realize that what appears to be a plain, unassuming pattern is actually made of individual instances.

Then these moments can be highlighted, distorted, emphasized or pushed back by the creation of an assemblage on top of it. The push and pull of the figure and ground.

The handmade paper string grids bring the micro mark that is in the background into the macro. A remembered moment has physicality and object hood representing the tactility of these lived experiences.