Felicia Martínez

Ent Walk#

Evidence of Fairies#

Artist’s Statement#

More than any other art form, cyanotype printmaking has opened my eyes to the subtleties of my surrounding environment. I first gather feathers, leaves, and other natural items in my backyard and on walks around my neighborhood. Then, after coating sheets of paper in cyanotype chemicals, I arrange my gathered treasures into forms meant to feel dreamlike and strange in order to surprise myself, most of all, into noticing even the most familiar item’s details and shapes. Exposing the arrangements in the sunlight that falls outside my backdoor (as opposed to using a controlled uv box) allows the eccentricities of light, shadow, and air to help produce my final images. Later, I soak my prints in various botanicals to enrich the color-range and unify each image.

Ent Walk is an arrangement of an alstroemeria blossom, acacia leaves, night phlox, and dry grasses, printed in sunlight on paper, and toned for several minutes in a bath of strawberry leaves.

Evidence of Fairies is an arrangement of oxalis leaves, yarrow leaves, maidenhair fern, sunflower petals, and potato vine leaves and blossoms, printed in sunlight on paper, and given a seconds-long tone in black tea. The photograph-like frame is simply a happy accident of the paper! And also helped inspire the piece’s title.

About the Artist#

Felicia Martínez is a writer and artist born and raised in Eastern New Mexico, though the San Francisco Bay Area is now home. Her deep love of the natural world inspires the found-object environments in her cyanotype prints, each of which draws attention to the smallest elements of nature’s fragile bounty. She holds a BA in Studio Art from the University of Notre Dame and a Ph.D in English from Stanford University. Find her words at Asimov’s, The Razor, The Rising Phoenix Review, The Acentos Review, The Deadlands, Star*Line, and others, and her first novelette is forthcoming from Querencia Press. Read more at feliciamartinez.com.