TAWA at 45
The Exhibition
Lorraine Raywood
Tulip Poplar
digital photograph, 2017; 36″h x 24″w
Primarily a photographer, Lorraine Raywood is known for her signature technique, where she develops black & white 35 mm negatives onto watercolor paper, and then applies color to the images. As a painter she is concerned with color, energy, and plastic quality. Exhibiting for more than 30 years, she has worked in silverprint photography, digital photography, installation, and assemblage. Early in her career she examined the archetypal feminine in the form of the Three Graces and their place in contemporary culture. Her work is often autobiographic, exposing and exorcising childhood taboos, or making serendipitous discoveries while exploring treasured memories. “Mixed Emotions” concentrated on being abandoned by her father at a young age. “The Missing Years” reflected on her Catholic boarding school experiences. She has focused on social and environmental issues.
In her 2000 exhibit “An Ounce of Prevention,” the motion to overturn Roe v. Wade was her inspiration. She chose nine proverbs for the titles and assemblage as the medium to comment on the need for reproductive responsibility. In 2002 she moved on to digital photography installation with “Generic Homes & Gardens or: Suburban Sprawl, Why They All Gotta be Beige?” impacting the viewer as one is overwhelmed by the homes’ similarities and the loss of open space. The 2005 “Drive By Shooting” is a lament about her daily commute. These works reflect minimalist and pop influences. Raywood studied with Hiroshi Murata, Trenton State College, where she received her BA and Artist/Educator NJ Teaching Certificate. She studied with Bill Barksdale and Mel Leipzig at Mercer County Community College. She studied with Walter Rosenblum, Lee Bontecou, and Lois Dodd at Brooklyn College, CUNY, where she received her MFA in photography. Awards include NJ State Council on the Arts and Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Fellowships. She enjoyed membership in MUSE gallery, Philadelphia (1988-2017). Raywood has shown extensively, and her works are included in many private and public collections.
“In my recent series, ‘Solebury in Symmetry,’ I am inspired by nature surrounding my home in Carversville, PA. I choose images for color, line, and form, often capturing a moment. The images are framed in the lens and unaltered. By arranging these images symmetrically, order is added to the organic. The viewer is drawn to the pattern then pulled deeper into the piece to explore textures and paths, resulting in a transcendent experience.”