Sissy Buck

I am

Artist Statement

As a printmaker and book artist, and as an antidote to digital overload, I gravitate towards abstract patterns found in nature and the expressive gesture of line in drawing and handwriting.

Fragments of my trace drawings, brushstrokes, and handwriting have always appeared in my monotypes as a mapping of time, memory and place. When I learned the technique of paper lithography it seemed fitting to bring my grandmother’s distinguished, cursive handwriting from her letters into my prints. She taught penmanship in middle school and was an artist.

I continue to include handwriting from letters, notes, recipes of family and friends in my monotypes. The defining scribbles and cursive loops reveal unique personalities and link a connective strand to my past. I am interested in what new images and conversations unfold as I alter and imprint my drawings on them. Abstractions, and layers in the resulting monotypes obscure the initial legibility and meaning of our words, leaving a liminal hieroglyph between the familiar and the unknown.

Art is a guaranty of sanity.

- Louise Bourgeois

RESUME

Education

  • 1979 B.A. Art History, Wheaton College, Norton, Ma.
  • Continuing Education in printmaking, painting, drawing, and artists books:
    • Maine College of Art, Portland, Me.
    • University of Southern Maine, Bath, Me.
    • School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Ma.
    • Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, Ma.
    • The DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, Ma.
    • Palo Alto Art Club, Palo Alto, Ca.

Selected Exhibitions

2015

  • Absence and Presence, Hampshire College Art Gallery, MA
  • ART2015, 20th Annual Juried Art Exhibit, (Britta Konau Juror) Harlow Gallery, Hallowell, ME
  • Illustrated Accordion, Kalamazoo Book Arts Center, Kalamazoo, MI
  • Bound Together II, Book Arts Exhibit, Portland Public Library, Portland, ME
  • Absence and Presence - a printmaking response to the 2007 Al Mutannabi Street Bombing, Baghdad, Iraq
  • Solo Show, Fogg Lighting, Portland, ME

2014

  • San Diego Book Arts Fifth National Juried Exhibit, Geisel Library at the University of California at San Diego, CA
  • On the Edge, MGNE group show, Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA
  • Bound Together, Book Arts Exhibit, Portland Public Library, Portland, ME
  • New Ink: Recent Work from the Peregrine Press, Engine Gallery, Biddeford, ME
  • Recent Acquistions, UNE Gallery, Portland, ME
  • Rescued, Revived, Redeemed, USM Wishcamper Center, Portland, ME
  • Peace through Friendship / Yūjō ni yoru Heiwa, June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland, ME

2013

  • Local Conditions, Print: MKE, Southern Graphics Council International Printmaking Conference, Milwaukee, WI
  • Is That A Book?!, USM Wishcamper Center, Kate Cheney Chappell Center for Book Arts Critique Group Show, Portland, ME
  • Fashionable Books and Paper Fashion, USM Glickman Library, Portland, ME
  • Artists’ Books: Meaning and Definition, Portland Public Library, Portland, ME

2012

  • Dunia Moja / One World, Patricia Ladd Carega Gallery, Center Sandwich, NH
  • First Class: A Mail Art Project, Unique Artists’ Books, University of Southern Maine, Wishcamper Center, Portland, ME
  • Print/Counter-Print, Rose Contemporary Gallery, Portland, ME
  • monoTYPE: The Literate Print, MGNE juried exhibit, Kimball Jenkins Estate, Concord, NH.

2011

  • Do You Want to See My Etchings?, Gallery 5, Lewiston, ME
  • Celebrate Women Artists in Maine, Thomas Moser, Freeport, ME
  • Peregrine Press Portfolio, Patricia Ladd Carega Gallery, Center Sandwich, NH
  • Dunia Moja / One World, Lewis Gallery, Portland Public Library, Portland, ME

2010

  • Thomas Moser Furniture, Freeport, ME
  • GRID WORKS, Åarhus Gallery, Belfast, ME
  • Maine Cottage Furniture Show House, Charleston, SC

2009

  • Contemporary Printmaking, MECA, Portland, ME
  • Maine Cottage Furniture, Yarmouth, ME
  • Selections from the Permanent Collection UNE Gallery, Portland, ME
  • Impressions Printmaking Exhibit, juried exhibition, New Hampshire Institute of Art, Manchester, NH
  • Turning Pages, Invitational book arts exhibition, Glickman Library, University of Southern Maine, Portland, ME

2008

  • First Impressions, The Peregrine Press, Saco Museum, Saco, ME
  • Three Printmakers, River Gallery, Ipswich, MA
  • Book Arts, Glickman Library, University of Southern Maine, Portland, ME
  • 3 Printmakers, River Gallery, Ipswich, MA
  • Borestone Mountain Art, Maine Audubon, Gilsland Farm, Falmouth, ME
  • WANT, Dana Warp Mill Gallery, Westbrook, ME

2007

  • Collected Pages, Downtown Gallery, Washington, ME
  • Printmaking: Explorations in Monotypes and Artist’s Books, Merrill Library, Yarmouth, ME
  • Artists’ Books, MECA Library, Portland, ME

2006

  • Montserrat Art Auction, Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, Ma. Juror commendation Jurors: Jeremy McDonnell of Barbara Krakow Gallery; Meredyth Hyatt Moses former owner and director of Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA; and Meg White from The Gallery NAGA.

1999

  • Drawing and Printmaking, Cambridge Art Association, Cambridge, MA

1998

  • Fifth Annual Juried Show, Essex Art Center, Lawrence, MA; Juror’s Choice Award
  • Artists Books, Cambridge Art Association, Cambridge, MA
  • First Annual Regional Show, Newburyport Art Association, Newburyport, MA

1983, 1984


  • Regional Exhibit, The Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA
  • Prints and Drawings, Student Show, Museum School, Boston, MA
  • Annual Juried Print Show, Artists’ Cooperative Gallery, San Francisco, Ca., Honorable Mention

Affiliations

  • Peregrine Press Printmaking Studio
  • Monotype Guild of New England
  • Kate Cheney Chappell Center for Book Arts, USM, Portland, ME

Collections

  • Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME
  • Farnsworth Museum, Rockland, ME
  • Maine Women’s Writing Center, University of New England, Portland, ME
  • Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME
  • University of New England , Portland, ME
  • New York City Public Library, NYC, NY
  • Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME
  • Wheaton College Permanent Collections, Norton, MA
  • Iraq National Library, Baghdad
  • New Brietain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT
  • University of Wisconsin