Underwater Glissade

Name/Title

Underwater Glissade

Entry/Object ID

PS.41

Made/Created

Artist

Janis O'Driscoll

Dimensions

Dimension Description

Mounted on stretched canvas

Height

12 in

Width

12 in

Depth

1 in

Interpretative Labels

Label Type

Artist Commentary

Label

Terry Tempest Williams says that "a jelly is more verb than noun." Watching a medusa glide through the water is a meditation on movement and quiet and transparency. Time passes. Peace descends. To capture that dance beneath the surface, I included the tentacle of an octopus which glides in a very different way but I imagine it as a partner to the pulsating jelly. How different they are and yet they show each other's best advantage.

Label Type

Technique or Process

Label

The image of medusa and octopus tentacle was drypointed onto a cardboard plate and printed with an etching press on cotton muslin. The center of the medusa was reprinted on a second piece of muslin and layered with hand stitches onto the original image. Light blue silk was hand stitched to the medusa rim. Kelp, additional medusa tentacles, and highlights on octopus tentacles were hand stitched. The four edges of the piece are fringed. The piece is fused onto a cotton canvas cradle. Cardboard drypoint plate; water-soluble etching ink; cotton muslin; light blue silk; sashiko thread; cotton canvas stretched over a wood frame.