Wendy Tokaryk

Relief print, 30”x44” on Somerset paper

An interior view looking out a window and beyond. This work preceded the 2020 pandemic that forced many to isolate.

The view looks to the future and is hopeful about what is to come.

This print was the basis for my homepage animation Rainbow Bridge.

Relief print, 30”x44” on Somerset paper

The design was based on a crochet blanket style that some people refer to as “Afghan’s”. By 1860, Afghan as a noun, not an adjective, denoted a type of handicrafted object shown at state fairs and other exhibitions, along with patchwork and knitted quilts (Wikipedia).

Relief print, 30”x44” on Somerset paper

A domestic interior.

Relief print, 30”x44” on Somerset paper

The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman published in 1892. It is a semi-autobiographical account of her psychosis due to postpartum.

The design and color palette of this print was based on the detailed descriptions of wallpaper in the short story. Perkins Gilman described the transformation of the wallpaper design to indicate the changing condition of her mental health:

I never saw a worse paper in my life. One of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin.
It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide - plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions.
The color is repellent, almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight.
It is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others.

Relief print, 30”x44” on Somerset paper

Based on a personal memory. I purchased a set of cheap birthday candles that once lit, melted in a matter of seconds prior to the ceremonial ‘blowing out’ from the recipient.

The candles in the print are comprised of individual pieces of rope that were inked, and the candle flames are tassels snipped from an old blanket.

For the exhibition opening reception at Society of Northern Alberta Print Artists, a local bakery was commissioned to re-create a cake in the likeness of the prints.

There are two cakes in the Doilies series; a birthday cake and a wedding cake. The commissioned cake was a simplified hybrid of the two prints. The cake was intentionally decorated using an over-the-top style. However; do not be fooled, the richness and texture of the cake was incredibly delicious. There is an art to cutting a tiered cake that I ceremonially practiced at the reception.

Relief print, 30”x44” on Somerset paper

Idiom: You can have your cake and eat it too.

Relief print, 30”x44” on Somerset paper

A print inspired by one of my grandmother’s rings. The stones represent the birth month of my parents and my siblings.

The drawing is quick; I use my finger and track pad on my laptop.

Relief print, 30”x44” on Somerset paper

Relief print, 30”x44” on Somerset paper

Relief print, 30”x44” on Somerset paper

Feminine singular for ‘gold’; glittering like gold.

Relief print, 30”x44” on Somerset paper

Relief print, 30”x44” on Somerset paper

Ukrainian paska easter bread is connected with spring themes: the awakening of nature, resurrection and rebirth.

Relief print, 30”x44” on Somerset paper

The words in this letter are abstracted lace pieces. The letterhead is graphic ornamentation, with the text salutation, body and signature represented as lace patterns.

The words and sentences are multi-colored, varied in texture and cadence. This indicates immature and disorganized thoughts. The expression of love is overwrought with vulnerability, excitement, and nervousness.

Relief print, 30”x44” on Somerset paper

This composition follows the format for writing a traditional letter. The words and sentences indicate calm and order.; there is maturity and resolve in this design.

The letter begins with a variety of red colors to indicate the expression of love. The color slowly changes from unsaturated red into a purple, then blue, eventually ending in cool shades of blue and grey.

The story being told is the changing sentiment of love; the erosion of a relationship, falling out of love, and regret before finally saying goodbye.

Relief print, 30”x44” on Somerset paper

This letter tells the story about the disappearance and mysterious circumstances surrounding Clara Wolcott-Driscoll’s fiancé (Edwin). He was the brother of Clara’s best friend George. Clara recounts the impact of the experience documented in a ‘round robin’ of letters shared with her mother and three sisters.

The design of the print is based on a formal letter and begins with the color red to indicate love. The color changes and graduates into a simple debossment (impression only without color). Clara’s signature is written in gold; she reconciled the loss and understood the union was not meant to be. After all, she was better off in the end:

The robin came unusually early—yesterday. I am so sorry I did not write at once about Edwin but I did not think of your hearing it so soon. It was after I wrote the last Robin that it appeared in the papers here. I had known it before but it had seemed unnecessary to say anything.

His story, in brief, is that he (Edwin) came to consciousness down on the Mississippi, below the point to which the detectives had traced him.

This was in September early, a little over a month after I left Chicago. [Edwin] says that he has no recollection of anything between that time and the previous election night in New York.

This seems almost incredible to me for we, who saw him everyday, saw no change in him after that day. I saw him before Election day and the day after and there was certainly no difference. No chain of thought seemed to be broken or left off, or forgotten.

When he came to himself, he was only able to do the simplest manual labor and felt that, in that condition he might better be dead to his family and friends; so he continued to wander about and get what work he could find, enlisting at last in the Army and going to Manila, being transported with his regiment to California. This was under another name (I have forgotten what). He then spent some time in California, gaining all the time in health until finally he took a responsible position in some new copper mine in the northern part of the state, where he was expecting to go when George first heard.

He has been up there several weeks and Dr. Dickenson’s son is with him. So, there seems no reason why he should not stay where he is employed pleasantly as well as profitably. How much of all this is true, we can’t possibly know. It has told very much on George who feels the burden of his own responsibility, and the necessity of keeping every worry from his father and mother. This got out, no one knows how, just before Mr. Waldo had announced it, in a dignified and correct statement in the Danielson papers.

I think there is not much doubt but that all this may occur over again, at any time; and yet, in his present condition, no one would have the right to confine him in an asylum. My feeling in the matter is wholly one of sympathy for George. Anything more that that ended for me years ago. My personal feeling could not be anything but that of deepest gratitude for an escape.

-Clara Wolcott Driscoll, 1897

Relief prints, triptych, each panel is 30”x44”

Relief print, 30”x44” on Somerset paper

Clara Wolcott Driscoll designed more than thirty Tiffany lamps produced by Tiffany Studios. In 1900, Clara won bronze medal prize at the Paris World’s Fair for her iconic Dragonfly lamp.

Clara Driscoll was head of Tiffany Studios’ Women’s Glass Cutting Department in New York City; they were known as the “Tiffany Girls”.

It is now believed that Clara Driscoll and the “Tiffany Girls” created many of the Tiffany lamps initially attributed to Louis Comfort Tiffany and his male designers.

Relief print, 30”x44” on Somerset paper

Relief print, 30”x44” on Somerset paper
acquired by The Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Art Collection

The sketching process is quick. It helps to resolve ideas and determine if the idea is something I want to make - or not.

Relief print, 30”x44” on Somerset paper
acquired by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Art Collection

Relief print, 30”x44” on Somerset paper
acquired by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Art Collection

Relief print, 30”x44” on Somerset paper

Relief print, triptych, each panel is 30”x44”

Toile de Jouy is a style of fabric originally designed in France that depicts printed motifs, characters, and landscapes. The triptych tells the story from left to right.

Panel one illustrates a woman enjoying her time in the presence of her modest cottage, garden, and wildlife. A grand house with spectacular grounds sits in the background.

Panel two is the proposal. A man approaches her with a single rose, while her puppy begs to distract. His homes and horse prove his status.

Panel three depicts two women fighting over a bouquet, possibly a gift from the man. He is making his rounds, ensuring success for a match.

Relief print, 30”x44” on Somerset paper

The essential princess accessory.

Relief print, 30”x44” on Somerset paper

Relief print, 30”x44” on Somerset paper

Relief print, 30”x44” on Somerset paper

Relief print, 30”x44” on Somerset paper

Relief print, 30”x44” on Somerset paper

This print is based on a silk book cover crafted and embroidered by designer May Morris for her father’s poems (c. 1888-91). Her father was William Morris, a textile designer of the British Arts & Crafts movement (1834-1896).

Love is enough: though the World be a-waning,
And the woods have no voice but the voice of complaining,
Though the sky be too dark for dim eyes to discover
The gold-cups and daisies fair blooming thereunder,
Though the hills be held shadows, and the sea a dark wonder
And this day draw a veil over all deeds pass'd over,
Yet their hands shall not tremble, their feet shall not falter; The void shall not weary, the fear shall not alter
These lips and these eyes of the loved and the lover.
- William Morris

Planning for the print is important. First, I cut the textile components and layout the composition, then photograph it, and import the photo into Photoshop. Secondly, I digitally create color swatches and sketch the plan for printing the textiles. I draw in layers overtop of the photographic composition to determine my approach.

Relief print, 30”x44” on Somerset paper

A diagram used in various mystical traditions. The lines represent relationships or paths that connect existence, spirituality, and the human psyche.

Exhibition took place in 2018 at SNAP - Society of Northern Alberta Print Artists

Textiles are organized, cut, and composed to prepare for the relief printing process. Textile pieces are inked and arranged on the etching press bed, printed in one lucky pass.

After planning, cutting and composing, the individual textile pieces were inked by rolling on colored inks using a brayer. The textiles are organized on the press bed to compose the image. This stage in the process takes from four to eight hours to complete one print, depending on the complexity. Cotton rag paper is soaked for 30 minutes so it has stretch; it is blotted, carefully laid over the textiles, then covered with the press blankets and cranked through the etching press to transfer to paper.

In printmaking, a rainbow roll (a gradient) is a classic technique used to impart multiple color in a single pass. It is not only used in intaglio or relief printing, but also woodblock, screen print, lithography, and letterpress.

Moku Hanga (Japanese Watercolor Woodblock Printmaking) was popularized by ukiyo-e (which translates to ‘pictures of the floating world’). The use of color gradients, or Bokashi, was a common technique enabling the use of semi-transparent and bright colors. Gradients belong to the canon of technical printmaking.

Not every try is a success….