RACHEL O'HARA

A fascination with the horizon, and other linear aspects of landscape led to an exploration of line and its complex relationship with space and surface. By isolating the edges of sky and sea and paring down the process to an economy of means, a new relationship between landscape and abstraction emerges.

In print, the focus of the work is the relationship between the language of the medium and simplicity of form. The essential properties of a grooved line on an etching plate or a crayon mark on a litho stone are as much a starting point as the horizon drawings themselves. The wide border space surrounding the line formations suggests an infinite and ambiguous space, pushing the lines beyond the plate edges.

The work is developed in small increments, from one drawing or print to another, with subtle changes in structure or tone. Relationships between method and spontaneity, ideal and imperfect forms, surface and depth inform that process. The original sources of horizons, sea edges, sky and landmass are evident in the work. The shifting balance between the natural and formal give the work its meaning.