Saskia Splinter
Saskia Splinter (1956) lives and works in Leiden. She studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie.
Over the years she has specialised in graphic techniques.
In 2011 she published her collection ‘Raakvlak’, in which she strengthened her poems with illustrations. This booklet is about breast cancer.
It reflects the changing moods from the diagnosis until a few weeks after the operation…
The year after the collection ‘Scherven’ (shards) followed:
It was a year of loss, of saying goodbye and giving up…”
THE WORK PROCESS
In her new series of ‘kalligrafiek’, poems have been integrated into images, in which different (graphic) techniques and letterforms have been combined. After a workpiece is finished, an image of it is printed on dibond and then encapsulated in epoxy resin. This process takes several days. The result is a radiant object, where every detail is visible under the bright glossy resin layer. The suspension system is an integral part of the whole. The texture of the work on the website is visible in detail when you move the cursor over the surface.
The series of relief printing is the result of printing on top of each other of different machined Linoleum (lino) plates. The various layers of ink, alternating between opaque and transparent, give an impression of an existing place: at that moment of the day, in that light. Images of these workpieces are also poured in epoxy resin.
THE STORY BEHIND
“Countless artists in all disciplines do it: using nature as an inexhaustible source of inspiration. To match nature in all its manifestations is impossible. So all that remains is a personal interpretation. First collecting and then redesigning. A text becomes an image or vice versa. This is how my work comes into existence. And everything I use, I make myself. That is my challenge. Converting light into colour, rendering structures in printing techniques, expressing a thought in letters, capturing a view with a lens, making a movement congeal in clay. A moment translated and captured. Maybe in my work you recognize something from your own experience. That would be nice. I like to share it!”.