From Flatbed Press: “Flatbed is pleased to present an exhibition of monotypes by our 2025 Jerry Manson Artist in Residence, Colleen Blackard. Blackard, a recent MFA graduate from the University of Texas Austin, connects external and internal landscapes through monotype printmaking and installation. She worked at Flatbed for three months on a series of monotypes that were influenced by her recent travels in Italy. This exhibition will feature Blackard’s ambitious multilayered works from her residency including two large installed works.”

“… a stone, a leaf, an unfound door; a stone, a leaf, a door. And of all the forgotten faces.”  -From Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe

Experiencing Italy for the first time, I found that even within the expansive Tuscan landscape, humanity has left an indelible mark, with valleys and hillsides turned to farmland and gardens enclosed by walls. The layers of this human history were ever-present. In Assisi, the Roman temple built to honor Minerva had been converted into a Catholic church, and my residence was built with stones from ancient Roman buildings. Etruscan and Roman archaeological sites were found below medieval and contemporary buildings alike. Yet, while human history is entrenched in the land, nature moves freely across it all, encrusting borders and eroding walls, subsuming the human narrative and becoming something more within the ruins of these civilizations. Grapevines and olive groves grow between cobblestone walkways. Birds nest in trees and eaves alike.

The overlaying of these buried histories inspired layering in my monotypes, with each layer amplifying or obscuring aspects of the previous version. As the passage of time compresses the layers of history into a new landscape, the pressure of the printmaking press combines layers of ink into a new vision of the landscape that is both natural and man-made.

My surroundings in Italy were saturated with color, from lush hillsides and burnt-red Sienese bricks to deep blue night skies and ochre Florentine sandstone. In my prints, I used transparent layers of these colors to create a blending of hues, resulting in rich depths and surprising mixtures.

An Unfound Door reflects on my journey through this landscape of crumbling walls and unearthed passages. This series explores the space that emerges when combining my memories and the layered histories of these sites, both human and natural, with the will of the press.