Biography:

Miriam Rudolph was born and raised in Paraguay, South America. Her family background is German. In 2003 she moved to Winnipeg/Canada to study Fine Arts at the University of Manitoba where she did a double major in painting and printmaking. She graduated with a Bachelor in Fine Arts with Honours in 2007 and a Bachelor of Education in 2010. Miriam received several awards from the School of Art, including the Lynn Sissons Memorial Award (2006), the Heintz Jordan Printmaking Award (2006), and the Shanski Award in Fine Arts (2005). She also received several production grants from the Winnipeg Arts Council and the Manitoba Arts Council between 2008-2011. Miriam recently moved to Minneapolis where she continues to make prints at the Highpoint Center for Printmaking. Most recently she has shown her work at the Highpoint Center for Printmaking, Minneapolis, Martha Street Studio, Winnipeg, in Montreal, Washington D.C., and Ottawa. 

Statement:

My prints are visual diaries that narrate my experiences and perceptions of different places I have been to. It is important for me to experience my surroundings very consciously, to be aware of details and to render the essence of a place in my artwork. Beneath the narrative of memories and perceptions lies the concept of my search for belonging that I experience after living in four different countries and cultures (Paraguay, Germany, Canada and USA). My work shows places that I feel connected to and serves to document, to evaluate and to remember. I use a mapping method which has a lot of symbolic meaning for the search of belonging, because maps facilitate searching, way finding and revisiting. The map-like structure of my prints allows me to build up a narrative of different experiences simultaneously. The series of prints about Paraguay, which Entre Itacurubí y San José is part of, illustrates all I don't want to forget and all I want to hold on to.

Entre Itacurubí y San José is a double plate colour etching. I etch two plates with the same image, but I etch them in different areas working in a wide tonal range of aquatints. Once the etching process is complete, each plate is inked in a different colour. In addition, I cut a stencil for the yellow and the green that I place onto the wiped plates prior to printing and I carefully roll a thin film of colour through the stencil on the surface of the copper. I print one plate after the other using a careful registration system. The overlapping of tones from the two plates creates a rich range of browns.