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Dirt Work
with Flakes, 1974. Dirt on
paper. 38 x 25.75 inches (irreg.). Courtesy of the artist;
Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco; Christopher Grimes
Gallery, Santa Monica, California; and Jack Shainman
Gallery, New York. Photograph by M. Lee Fatherree.
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The Process of Making Art
I was starting to think about process and materials,
things that led eventually into the kind of work that interests
me now.
—David Ireland
Ireland took a circuitous route to becoming an
artist. After receiving his bachelor’s degree in 1953 from
the California College of Arts and Crafts, he journeyed throughout
the world and worked at various jobs—as an architectural draftsman
and African safari guide and importer. At the age of 42, Ireland
refocused his attention on art and began graduate school at the San
Francisco Art Institute in 1972.
Ireland relished working with different materials—graphite,
tempera, and even dirt and talcum—to explore varying ways to
make marks. For him, the process of making—of being fully engaged
in the moment—is as important as the resulting artwork.
Given Ireland’s fascination with manipulating
materials, he was particularly attracted to the physicality of printmaking.
As seen in many works, he often folded or crumpled his prints and
ran them through the press multiple times. The wrinkles, intersections,
and layers of color that distinguish these pieces are evidence of
his process.
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