Lying Awake

For almost four decades Spahr has been inspired by stone lithography. The limestone block was once a mass of Jurassic mud at the bottom of a tropical lagoon in Europe. Its grained surface is exquisitely sensitive and absorbs the artist’s image drawn in grease pencils. This book reproduces traditional lithographs printed from stone, but also more radical interpretations of the medium: facsimiles of the stone cast in wax and large-scale print paintings that use the scarring levigator as an engraving tool. The book shows in full the following cycles of work: Nightwork, Spiracle, Pitch, Lying Awake, Soo and Soul.

Following the format of her earlier books, OPEN STUDIO, and FULGURITE (a blurb book,) Spahr has added a generous selection of excerpts from the notebooks. They capture the moments of steep and deep the artist experiences behind the closed doors of the studio.

The few artists still inspired with stone lithography may live on a shrinking island in our digital world, but it is an enchanting island where time has time to solidify.