Karen S. Kunc

American, b. 1952

System
2007

Woodcut
24.125 x 20.125 in.
Museum Purchase with the Charter Member Endowment Fund
2008.3.3

Karen Kunc’s woodcut prints attempt to convey the fragile relationship humans have to nature and imply that there may be more synergism that we might expect. Through my art I obliquely address environmental and politically charged awareness, while always creating poetically poignant visual images and beautiful, edgy visual sensations. My senses are attuned to my rural surroundings, expressed in work that visually evokes the natural world and addresses the metaphoric interdependent relationship of humankind with and against nature. I draw from my rural sources: cracks in the ground, growth patterns in plants, makeshift/manmade structures, patterns of decay and weathering, “everyday science” images of graphs or maps from weather charts to DNA to galaxies.

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This object has the following keywords:

• natural element motifs - Decorative design motifs that contain elements from nature.
• rectangles
• roots - In botany, the parts of a plant normally underground, having the primary functions of anchorage of the plant, absorption of water and dissolved minerals and conduction of these to the stem, and storage of reserve foods.
• seed - Material comprising the seed of a plant, which is the nutrient material for development after germination that is enclosed in a protective coat. Seeds may be processed in various ways for use as materials, or they may be used whole as elements in a design.
• tree
• trees - Woody, perennial plants usually with a single, long, self-supporting stem or trunk, and which grow to a considerable height.
• water - A liquid made up of molecules of hydrogen and oxygen (HO2). When pure, it is colorless, tasteless, and odorless. It exists in gaseous, liquid, and solid forms; it is liquid at room temperature. It is the liquid of which seas, lakes, and rivers are composed, and which falls as rain. Water is one of the most plentiful and essential of compounds. It is vital to life, participating in virtually every process that occurs in plants and animals. One of its most important properties is its ability to dissolve many other substances. The versatility of water as a solvent is essential to living organisms. The term "water" is typically used to refer to the liquid form of this compound; for the solid or gaseous forms, use "ice" or "water vapor."

This object was included in the following exhibitions:

• Reliefs: The Art of Woodcuts , 10/3/2013 - 9/23/2014
• Women, Woe, and the Wild: Woodcuts from the Permanent Collection , 2/24/2015 - 2/5/2016
• ART 3250: Relief Prints , 9/27/2016 - 12/10/2016
• The Day After Tomorrow; Art in Response to Turmoil and Hope Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art , 7/1/2020 - 12/19/2020