Polly Apfelbaum, Barn Star 25, 2023

The Barn Stars monoprint series plays with motifs seen in Pennsylvania folk art, specifically the geometric imagery found in quilts and hand-painted onto agricultural buildings, which Apfelbaum was exposed to while growing up in the area. These patterns have become a focal point for Apfelbaum at Durham Press, often using them as a framework to explore color theory within their repeating structures. The Barn Stars have a physical presence, much like the quilts they are inspired from, created as each individual woodblock debosses into the print’s thick, textured Japanese paper.

Though each monoprint is constructed from the same modular parts, Apfelbaum is able to create dramatically different visual effects by manipulating color and form. A composition which seemed to radiate from its center as the print progressed from light to dark takes on a new form as she inverts its monochromatic gradient, creating a print where the same star now appears to collapse inwards. Other Barn Stars use stark, contrasting complimentary colors which shatter with outward energy instead of pulse as Apfelbaum emphasizes the sharp diamond woodblocks which form each star. She begins to play with these blocks, using larger diamonds to create simplified blocks of color or condenses multiple stars into a single print. The Barn Star monoprints seem to animate, both within themselves and throughout the series, as Apfelbaum captures movement within the boundaries of each new composition.