BEST MADE PROJECTS

Necessary Tools: Charlotte Sullivan

Our hands are wonderful things. Able to touch, feel, and learn about the world around us, and capable of changing that world at the same time. Our hands are the ultimate tools. Although it is easy to forget this. Many of us busy our hands with the mind-numbing work of computers. The muscle memory movements of typing, the seemingly mindless wrist flicking of the mouse. In the digital realm our hands aid in the storage and retrieval of vast amounts of information, but often fall short in the actual creation of tangible objects.

Charlotte Sullivan’s prints of farm tools have found a balance between all of this. Growing a bit frustrated with the hands-off nature of digital photography she learned a photopolymer process that allowed her to transfer her photographs to printing plates which she then printed by hand. The resulting prints are rich in texture, the roughness of cast iron, the dry hardness of wood, and the scratchiness of canvas. The ink and the paper yearn for our hands to touch them, just as the original objects did.

The choices in subject matter are very deliberate. The items are all farm tools, but they also symbolize the deeper relationships we have with everyday objects. Charlotte explains:

“The skillet, for eating what you’ve grown, and committing to cooking your own food. The gloves, for protecting your hands and starting projects that at first seem too big to finish. The yolk, for animal cooperation and a life of good teamwork. The bee steamer, for taking care of bees, or any essential life forms, even those much smaller than our ourselves.”

So, let us not forget our hands. Let us celebrate them, by putting them to good use. Even in this age of speed-dial, e-readers, and scroll wheels our hands want to work. Let us work with them, rather than simply putting them to work.

Check out more projects by Charlotte Sullivan at her website, hybridfloaters.com